Catastrophe unfolding in south Yemen, MSF says
AT LEAST 68 DEATHS IN JUST OVER TWO WEEKS IN ADEN
The main coronavirus treatment centre in southern Yemen has recorded at least 68 deaths in just over two weeks, the medical charity running the site said yesterday, more than double the toll announced by Yemeni authorities so far.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said the dedicated Covid-19 centre in Aden that serves the entire south admitted 173 patients from April 30 to May 17, at least 68 of whom died, suggesting “a wider catastrophe unfolding in the city”.
“What we are seeing in our treatment centre is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the number of people infected and dying in [Aden],” Caroline Seguin, MSF’s operations manager for Yemen, said in a statement.
“People are coming to us too late to save, and we know that many more people are not coming at all: they are just dying at home.”
The government tally of cases does not include confirmed cases in the country’s north, which is under the control of Al Houthis who are concealing the magnitude of the outbreak by suppressing numbers and intimidating journalists and doctors. So far, they have reported four cases, including one death of a Somali migrant.
On Tuesday, a 35-year-old World Food Programme staffer died of Covid-19 in the Al Houthi-controlled province of Sa’ada.
Spread like wildfire
The increase in suspected coronavirus cases in Yemen is sounding alarms throughout the global health community, which fears the virus will spread like wildfire through some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.
The World Health Organisation says its models suggest that, under some scenarios, half of Yemen’s population of 30 million could be infected with the virus and more than 40,000 could die.
Half of Yemen’s health facilities are dysfunctional and 18% of the country’s 333 districts have no doctors. Water and sanitation systems have collapsed. Many families can barely afford one meal a day.
“The high level of mortality we are seeing among our patients is equivalent to those of intensive care units in Europe, but the people we see dying are much younger than in France or Italy: mostly men between 40 and 60 years old,” said Seguin.