Waiting Too Long: The Contribution of Delayed Surgical Access to Pediatric Disease Burden in Somaliland.

Study quantifies disease burden from delayed pediatric surgical care in Somaliland, finding 280 children with congenital conditions experienced average delays of 8.4 DALYs per child, with neurosurgical and anorectal cases most affected. Over half of families traveled more than 2 hours to reach surgical facilities, highlighting critical gaps in timely access to pediatric surgical care in low-resource settings.