Nearly 3M People in Central America Rely on Food Aid to Survive

2.8 Million people Need Food Aid in Drought-Hit Central America: UN

At least  2.8 million people in three Central American countries—El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras—need food aid after two consecutive years of severe drought decimated crops and exacerbated hunger among the poor, said the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

“People are and have been selling their assets to survive, selling land and seeds, reducing the number of meals a day and reducing their amount of protein intake,” said a disaster response coordinator for Central America at the U.N. humanitarian agency (OCHA).

“Right now the situation is very serious, and it’s fragile.”

Losses as of September 2015 (FAO)

At an estimated 3 million tonnes across the subregion, this year’s maize harvest is expected to be far below average and some 8 percent below last year’s already compromised harvest.

Production declines are expected to be particularly sharp in El Salvador and Honduras, which both saw 60 percent of their maize crops destroyed by the irregular rainfall earlier this year. In El Salvador alone, losses are estimated at $28 million in seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and land preparation. Honduras additionally saw 80 percent of its beans perish.

In Guatemala’s most affected areas, some 80 percent of crops are estimated to have been lost, including 55,000 tonnes of maize and 11,500 tonnes of beans, affecting over 150,000 families.

Zika Virus Outbreak Result of Bioweapon?

ZIKV outbreak possibly resulted from  biological warfare: Russian expert

Russia’s former Surgeon General has said that the Zika virus (ZIKV) outbreak could be due to the use of biological warfare, said a report.

One of the possible causes for the spread of the deadly Zika virus outbreak could be the use of biological warfare, Russia’s former Chief State Sanitary Physician Gennady Onishchenko said Tuesday.

“This is being looked into… If we don’t do anything at all, this will become a man-made spread [of the disease]. This infection has been known since 1948 and it lived very quietly, but over the last few years, it began to grow,” Onishchenko told RIA Novosti.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Zika virus outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on February 1.

WHY WHO Imposed No Travel Ban?

WHO failed to explain, however, as to why its Emergency Committee had “found no public health justification for restrictions on travel or trade to prevent the spread of Zika virus,” despite the “explosive” outbreak.

State of Emergency Declared in Honduras

Meanwhile, Honduras declared a state of emergency, after recording nearly 3,700 suspected cases of Zika infections since late November, reports said.

Suppressed Rains Intensify Drought in Central America

Significant moisture deficits and crop losses occur across much of Central America: CPC/NOAA

Climate Prediction Center’s Central America Hazards Outlook September 3 – 9, 2015: Suppressed rains continue throughout Central America to start the month of September

In the last 30 days, nearly all of Central America has experienced below-average rainfall, as the largest moisture deficits (<25 percent of normal) have been mainly observed in the Gulf of Fonseca region, parts of southern Honduras and western Nicaragua. The drier-than-average rainfall has been preceded by a poor Primera rain season which has reportedly led to degraded ground conditions and crop losses earlier this year. —CPC/NOAA

Prolonged Drought Plagues Central America

Drought severely affects millions in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras

A prolonged, debilitating drought is severely affecting Central America, leading to food shortages and threatening food insecurity in addition to water famine across the region.

A farmer shows his maize crops severely damaged by the drought in Santa Cruz,  southern Honduras (Aug. 22, 2015). A  prolonged drought has affected at least 146 municipalities in Honduras. (Xinhua/Rafael Ochoa). More images…

“Since mid-July, nearly all of the Central America has experienced below-average rainfall, as the largest moisture deficits (<50 percent of normal) have been mainly observed in the Gulf of Fonseca region and in parts of northern Honduras according to satellite rainfall data. The drier than average rainfall has been preceded by both poor Primera rains season which has reportedly led to losses in maize and bean crops over the El Progreso, Zacapa, and Chiquimula departments of eastern Guatemala,” according to Climate Prediction Center.

Climate Prediction Center’s Central America Hazards Outlook

Drought Destroys 75% of Major Crops in Central America

DISASTERS CAUSED BY CLIMATE CHANGE
EXTREME WEATHER
STATE OF CALAMITY
MAJOR DISASTERS
DROUGHT IN CENTRAL AMERICA
CROP DISASTERS
RUST PLAGUE
RISING FOOD PRICES
HUNGER
SCENARIOS: 808, [500,] 444, 300, 277, 255, 111, 100, 078, 012, 03, 02
.

Millions of Central Americans face food insecurity due to drought: UNOCHA

Prolonged drought has destroyed up to 75% of staple crops—maize and bean—in Central America, killing thousands of cattle and affecting more than 3.35 million people by food insecurity, mainly in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Source OCHA-ROLAC

• Guatemala. The government declared a State of Public Calamity in August 2014 in 16 out of 22 departments and extended the decree in October.
• An Emergency Food Security Assessment (EFSA) identified a total of 248,000 households (1 in 4 houses surveyed in the dry corridor) with moderate and severe food insecurity.
• In the coming months food insecurity is expected to worsen as families deplete their food stocks.

• Honduras. The Government has declared State of Emergency in the Honduran dry corridor for the impact of crop loss (between 54 to 75%).
• At least 19,559 children are malnourished as a direct consequence of the drought.

• El Salvador. The country is experiencing the most severe drought since 1977, with
  July 2014 rainfall being the lowest in 44 years.
• About 65% of basic grain producers registered crop losses. Of the producers affected in the eastern part of the country, 82% have lost their entire crops.

• Other countries. Drought has also affected crops and livestock in Nicaragua, Panama and Costa Rica.

“The lack of rain in recent months has resulted in the loss of staple grain crops and death of thousands of cattle in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and to a lesser extent in areas of Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. The most vulnerable population are families of subsistence farmers, labourers and landless farmers, who are characterized by low income, with limited access to land, basic health services and education, and difficulties in obtaining the basic food basket,” reported UNOCHA.

Related Links

Drought Destroys Crops, Livelihoods across Central America  September 4, 2014

Food Security Alert for Central America

EXTREME WEATHER & CLIMATIC DISASTERS
DROUGHT
COFFEE RUST (Hemileia vastatrix)
CROP DISASTERS
STATE OF EMERGENCY
FAMINE
MAIN SCENARIOS 900, 817, 808, 800,  444, 300, 277, 255, 244, 111, 101, 100, 03, 02
.

Drought, Coffee Rust Threaten Food Security across Large Areas of Central America

Poor harvest caused by drought and coffee rust threaten food security across large swathes of Central America, severely affecting millions of people in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador, according to Famine Early Warning System (FEWS).

Poor harvests caused by severe drought and “the reduction in coffee-sector income for day laborers, and a more rapid than usual increase in the prices of some staple foods, extremely poor households across large areas of Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador will experience a rapid deterioration in their food security in early 2015. Atypically high levels of humanitarian assistance, possibly the highest since Hurricane Mitch in 1998, will likely be required in order to avoid a food crisis,” reported FEWS.

Large swathes of central America have been experiencing severe drought since May, with the rainfall accumulation being up to 75 percent below average.

Estimated losses to basic grains for the 2014 harvests of Primera crops.  † For Honduras, the reference year is 2010/11. Source: Prepared by FEWS NET with data provided by national Ministries of Agriculture, and estimates

“Primera crops are estimated at between 9 and 75 percent, while losses incurred by subsistence farmers located in the worst-affected areas are expected to exceed 70 percent. Forecasts by the XLIV Central American Climate Outlook Forum indicate below-average rainfall will continue through November in all four countries, meaning that Postrera harvests are also likely to be below-average,” said FEWS.

 Honduras

The Government of Honduras declared a state of emergency for drought in the dry corridor in July, 2014.

As of last month, up to one million people (about 190,000 families) have been affected by the drought.

EREs Kill Dozens, Displace 36,000 in Nicaragua

EXTREME WEATHER & CLIMATIC DISASTERS
EXTREME RAIN EVENTS
DEADLY FLOODS & MUDSLIDES
MAJOR DISASTERS
MASS DISPLACEMENT
SCENARIOS 888, 444, 111, 070, 066, 047, 027, 023, 022, 03, 02
.

EREs kill dozens, destroy thousands of homes, displace tens of thousands in Nicaragua

Extreme rain events (EREs) since September have unleashed deadly floods in Nicaragua killing at least two dozen people,  destroying or damaging thousands of homes and leaving more than 36,000 people homeless.

The rains have severely affected 17 departments in the country, and have impacted El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, according to local reports.

Global Health Emergencies

State of emergency declared in Honduras as dengue fever death toll rises

Honduras government has declared a state of emergency after a dengue fever outbreak that has killed 16 people and infected more than 12,000 others, local media reported.

The mosquito-borne  disease has infected more than half of the municipalities in the country.

The Health Minister has declared a national priority to control mosquitoes.

It is very difficult to control or eliminate Ae. aegypti mosquitoes because they have adaptations to the environment that make them highly resilient, or with the ability to rapidly bounce back to initial numbers after disturbances resulting from natural phenomena (e.g., droughts) or human interventions (e.g., control measures). One such adaptation is the ability of the eggs to withstand desiccation (drying) and to survive without water for several months on the inner walls of containers. For example, if we were to eliminate all larvae, pupae, and adult Ae. aegypti at once from a site, its population could recover two weeks later as a result of egg hatching following rainfall or the addition of water to containers harboring eggs. [CDC]

Of the 12,135 reported cases, some 1,839 are suspected to be of the potentially fatal Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), which can lead to internal bleeding and shock -like state.

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Philippines

One new case of HIV/AIDS reported in the Philippines every 2 hours

One new case of HIV/AIDS infection has been reported every two hours in the Philippines so far this year, according to the Department of Health’s National Epidemiology Center (DOH-NEC).

Since 2007,  a steady increase in HIV cases has been recorded by the center. “In 2000, there was one case registered every three days; in 2011, this number grew to one case every three hours.”

In May 2013 some 415 new HIV cases were recorded, with 55 percent of cases being among people aged 20-29.

In June, 431 new HIV cases were registered, bringing the total number for the first half of this year to 2,323, the center said.

The June total was 46 percent higher than a year ago and the “highest number of cases reported in a month,” said DOH-NEC.

Since 1987, when HIV was first discovered in the Philippines, DOH-NEC has recorded 13,594 cases.

“Tip of the iceberg”

Many consider this official number is just the “tip of the iceberg” because less than 1 percent of the general population are tested for HIV, so officially registered cases are unlikely to accurately reflect the epidemic, said UN-OCHA.

“We project that the number of infected will reach 39,000-50,000 by 2015,” said the executive director of The Library Foundation Sexuality, Health and Rights Educators Collective, Inc., an NGO member of the Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC), the country’s central advisory body on HIV/AIDS.

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Human Enhanced World Disasters: A Quick Scan

Honduras

Dozens of people have been killed among 270,000 Hondurans who have been affected by severe flooding and landslides caused by heavy rains, and at least 20,000 others have been forced to flee their homes for shelters. Half of those affected are children. UNICEF

17 of the 18 Departments [regions] of Honduras have experienced flooding. Photo Source: BBC. Image may be subject to copyright.

The Permanent Commission for Contingencies (COPECO) has reported

• 33 deaths were reported a
• 42,234 persons evacuated
• 467 houses were destroyed
• 10,000 homes are flooded or damaged.
• About 100,000 hectares of crops have been lost.
• Approximately 50% of the roads are damaged or destroyed.
• Some 114 out of 298 municipalities are affected.
• Public health is an area of concerns even though no outbreaks have been reported.
• PAHO/WHO reports that 14 potable water systems are damaged.
• Currently no severe food security issues, but the next production will be affected.

The main health concerns are gastrointestinal diseases and acute respiratory infections. Primary needs include portable latrines, water purification and household hygiene kits.

Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Belize

Up to 100,000 people have also been affected by the flooding in the neighboring Central American countries of Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Belize.

Haiti and Cuba

Two of the countries most impacted by the devastating 2008 hurricane season so far effects on are Haiti and Cuba. Widespread crop damage due to the numerous storms has aggravated the effects of the global food crisis, raising concerns about nutrition for children and pregnant/breastfeeding mothers. UNICEF

Kenya

As the drought worsens due to the generally poor long rains this year food security deteriorates in kenya. The worst affected areas include Turkana, Mandera, Samburu, Baringo, Marsabit, Wajir, Moyale and Garissa districts. Also affected are the districts of Isiolo, Laikipia, Ijara, Taita Taveta, Kitui, Mwingi, Makueni, Mbeere, Malindi, Kilifi, Kwale, and Tana River districts. Source: Office of the President

DR Congo

Tens of thousands of civilians are fleeing from the areas of Tongo, Kalengera, Kabiza and Rumangabo, in the North Kivu province (east Democratic Republic of Congo), where new fighting broke out Friday between the Congolese military and rebels of the renegade pro-Rwandan general Laurent Nkunda. Source: (MISNA)

Bangladesh

Several people have been killed, and dozens injured as tropical storm Rashmi struck southern Bangladesh damaging thousands of homes, uprooting trees and destroying vast areas of croplands. Further details of certain damage to coastal areas are not yet available.

Cyclone Sidr destroyed the coastal areas last November, killing up to 3,500 and displacing about two million people. (Reuters)

Pakistan

More than 15 per cent of the children, living in the camps set up by the government for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) of Bajaur tribal region, are suffering from malnutrition. (source: DG Newspapers)

Meanwhile, a strong magnitude 6.4 earthquake centered about 60 km (35 miles) NNE of Quetta, Pakistan, 640 km (400 miles) WSW of the capital, Islamabad, struck at 04:09:58 am local time, on October 29, 2008, killing at least 135 people, injuring hundreds more, making about 15,000 homeless.

Earthquake victims dig through rubble after an earthquake in Ziarat, Baluchistan province, in this video grab taken October 29, 2008. Photo: REUTERS/Express TV via Reuters TV (PAKISTAN). NO SALES. NO ARCHIVES. PAKISTAN OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN PAKISTAN. Image may be subject to copyright.

Image of the Day: Landslide in Honduras

Honduras: Torrential rain, landslides and flooding kills dozens of people

A motel damaged by a landslide is seen in the outskirts of Tegucigalpa October 23, 2008. At least 25 people have been killed and thousands evacuated in Honduras after days of torrential rain, landslides and flooding, rescue workers said on Thursday. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido (HONDURAS). Image may be subject to copyright. See Fair Use Notice.

Related Image Gallery:

• Honduras Disaster