ReliefWeb

A. Situation analysis

Description of the disaster

The dengue outbreak in Colombia has continued its growing trend in recent epidemiological weeks (EW). Between EW 40 and 46, there have been 100,733 cases of dengue and 1,205 cases of severe dengue. In endemic zones, there has been an upswing of cases. According to the latest Ministry of Health report for EW 46 (10 to 16 November 2019), cases continue to occur in the departments of Meta, Tolima, Huila, Santander, Norte de Santander, Casanare, Cesar, Sucre and Antioquia, which represent 69 per cent of cases nationwide. In 2019, this outbreak has caused 227 deaths.

Dengue has behaved like an endemic disease, with cyclical epidemic outbreaks in nearly all locations from sea level to 1,800 meters above sea level; this is equivalent to 900,000 km of the 1,138,000 km2 national territory, where approximately 20,000,000 people live.

Based on the ongoing occurrence of dengue, the continual implementation of community strategies that prioritize health promotion and prevention is needed. The planned actions still are being implemented.

Summary of the current response

Overview of Host National Society

Building upon its knowledge about actions to combat vector-borne diseases, particularly the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is responsible for the transmission of dengue, Zika and chikungunya, the Colombian Red Cross Society (CRCS) actively is responding to the dengue health emergency. The CRCS has adopted solutions that respond to the national and local contexts.

At the national level, the CRCS is implementing a dengue prevention and reduction plan. At the local level, these plans are grounded in the capacities of each of the local CRCS branches of Tolima, Meta, Casanare, Santander and Huila.

The response has involved planning, organizing the operation and training staff to implement community-based and administrative actions. At the start of the operation, a meeting was held with different areas to carry out planning, budgeting, and staff hiring processes, among others. This meeting covered the following areas: procurement, national finances, strategic partnerships, human management, integrated health management and a health team.

Based on the action plan, activities were designed using the planning, monitoring and evaluation matrix, administrative management. The CRCS procurement area acquired the necessary supplies and equipment to enable the National Society to reach the target communities exposed to the vector.

Overview of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement in the country

The Colombian Red Cross Society shares information about the dengue outbreak with different members of the Movement including American Red Cross, German Red Cross, Norwegian Red Cross, Spanish Red Cross, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the IFRC. The Movement is supporting CRCS campaigns against vector-borne diseases, including dengue fever.

The CRCS is in constant communication with the IFRC. It has published reports on the International Federation's GO information platform. Since the beginning of the new cycle of the epidemic, the IFRC Disaster Management Coordinator for South America and the IFRC office in Colombia have provided support to the National Society. The IFRC also provides support services in the areas of planning, monitoring, evaluation and reporting (PMER) and finance from its IFRC country cluster support team (CCST) for the Andean countries, located in Peru.

The IFRC concurrently supports the CRCS to respond to the population movement with the Emergency Appeal operation (MDRCO014) and programme-based support through the Monarch Butterfly project.

Overview of non-RCRC actors in the country

At the start of this operation, the CRCS held a strategic meeting with the Minister and Vice-Minister of Health and Social Protection and the National Society’s president, executive director and integrated health manager to discuss the scope of this DREF operation.

At the national level, the Ministry of Health, the National Health Institute and local health secretariats in the selected municipalities implement actions to address the outbreak. The Ministry of Health and Social Protection implements the “Cut the Wings off Dengue” (Córtale las alas al dengue) campaign to reduce the dengue outbreak, as well as conducting prevention and containment actions that include warnings to strengthen dengue prevention, care, surveillance and control actions.

The Pan American Health Organization currently supports and implements actions that respond to this epidemic.