Cholera kills 2,235 people in Yemen; 75% of Yemenis are still in need of humanitarian assistance

Sana’a, January 10: Yemen is still suffering from the dual attack i.e civil war and another one from the outbreak of cholera. Therefore, some 75 percent of Yemen’s population is in need of humanitarian assistance, including 11.3 million children who cannot survive without it. While the death toll has surged to 2,235 and the suspected cholera cases has reached over 1.5 million.

 

Due to an outbreak of cholera in April last year, 96% parts of Yemen is severely hampered and affected. The World Health Organization (WHO) said that nearly 1.5 million suspected cases of cholera have been reported in war-torn Yemen since April 27. Over the same period, the report goes on to note, 2, 235 cholera-related deaths have been documented in 22 out of Yemen’s 23 provinces.

The strategic Red Sea port city of Hudaydah, which is under Houthi control, has the highest number of cases with over 143,000 while the island of Socotra is the only area that has not witnessed a cholera outbreak.

On the other side, Hajjah province has had the highest number of cholera deaths with 417. Also, the fatality case rates have gone by 0.35%. Children and the elderly are the affected at the worst as more than 44% of the suspected cases since the outbreak and a quarter of the deaths are children, while old people represent 39% of fatalities.

Though the International Community including WHO and United Nations is leading from the front in providing aid to Yemen, 60 percent of Yemenis are yet food insecure and 16 million people do not have access to safe water and proper sanitation. Many more lack access to basic health services. Less than half of Yemen’s health facilities are fully functional and medical staff has gone months without being paid their salaries.

So far, United Nations and WHO collectively have reached nearly 6 million people with clean water, distributed 3.7 million litres of fuel to public hospitals, treated more than 167,000 children for severe acute malnutrition, delivered more than 2,700 metric tons of medicines and medical supplies, and vaccinated 4.8 million children against polio, and deliver food assistance to around 7 million people a month. But still, it’s not enough.

Interestingly, with over 20 million people dependent on aid, Yemen is the world's single largest humanitarian crisis, now made even worse with the outbreak of cholera. Less than half the country’s hospitals are running and less than a third of the needed medicines are available due to which conditions are getting worst.

BACKGROUND:

In 2011, some 719,377 suspected cases of cholera were recorded in Haiti, and 8,767 people died, according to national figures cited by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. An epidemic late last year faded but outbreaks are frequent and made worse by the degrading of health and sanitation systems by more than two years of civil war that has also killed at least 10,000 people and displaced millions. Earlier, in 2011, some 719,377 suspected cases of cholera were recorded in Haiti, and 8,767 people died.