UN makes U-turn to scrap cholera vaccine campaign

GENEVA: The United Nations said on Tuesday it was suspending plans for a cholera vaccination campaign in Yemen — reversing a decision made a month ago — because the disease’s rampant spread and the ravages of war there would make such an effort ineffective.

Jamie McGoldrick, the UN aid coordinator in Yemen, said plans for preventive vaccination were being “set aside”.

He attributed the change to obstacles in delivering vaccines in the middle of a conflict that has crippled the country’s health system and hampered access to some areas threatened by the contagious disease.

Christian Lindmeier, a spokesman for the World Health Organisation, told reporters the vaccine doses originally designated for shipment to Yemen would probably be sent to other countries threatened by cholera, where they could be used more effectively.

The surprise disclosure, made at a regular news briefing at UN headquarters in Geneva, came as the number of Yemenis afflicted with cholera reached 313,000 and the death toll exceeded 1,700.

Aid groups say the outbreak, which began this spring, has deepened a humanitarian crisis caused by a civil war that has raged for more than two years between a Saudi-led military coalition and Houthi insurgents backed by Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional rival.

Cholera, a highly contagious malady spread by water contaminated with human waste, can cause fatal dehydration if left untreated.

A vaccination effort in Yemen, Mr Lindmeier said, is a “difficult approach because you can’t plan a campaign like you would do in a normal country” where war and insecurity are absent.

The war which has killed about 10,000 people has created the risk of a widespread famine in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country.

Nearly 3 million people are acutely malnourished and nearly 10 million are in need of urgent humanitarian support, Mr McGoldrick said.

“Cholera is today’s crisis, famine is tomorrow’s crisis,” Mr McGoldrick said.