Cholera kills 34 in Yemen
Bacterial infection hits more than 1,000 in latest outbreak as doctors express fear that the disease will spread out of control
ADEN // An outbreak of cholera in Yemen has killed 34 people in a week and 2,000 others are suffering from the disease caused by contaminated food and water, the World Health Organisation said yesterday.
The outbreak is the second to hit the country since the civil war started more than two years ago and hospitals and aid agencies across the country are battling to treat those affected.
“We are very concerned that the disease will continue to spread and become out of control,” said Shinjiro Murata, Medicins Sans Frontiere’s head of mission in Yemen.
MSF said it had treated more than 780 cases of cholera and acute diarrhoea in Yemen since March 30. The worst affected areas are Hajja, Al Dhale and Taiz provinces. The WHO has counted 1,360 cases of cholera since April 27, and the total number of cases since the beginning of the conflict is about 27,000, including 130 deaths, according to the UN health agency.
Six-year-old Saqr Al Thobhani has been receiving cholera treatment at Khalifa Hospital in Al Turba area, 70 kilometres from Taez city, since last Wednesday.
“Saqr now is better than last week and he seems to be recovering due to the treatment,” his mother Zainab told
The Nation. “I thank the doctors here for al their help – they paid the cost of medicines.”
Saqr, who has four siblings, lives near the rubbish dump of Al Turba market with his family.
They collect plastic bottles for sale to earn money to buy food, which could be how he contracted the disease, his doctors said.
Cholera is a bacterial infection that causes severe diarrhoea.
It is transmitted through contaminated food or water, and if not treated promptly, can kill up to 15 per cent of those affected in just a few hours, said the UN children’s agency Unicef.
Saqr is one of eight children receiving treatment for cholera at Khalifa hospital, said manager Abdurrahman Al Sabri.
“Not everyone in the rural areas can get to the hospital easily, so we heard about children dying from cholera [at home] because they could not come to the hospital in time,” he said.
“The main reason for the cholera is the shortage of water, which leads people to drink polluted water, the uncovered food and [lack of] personal cleanliness.”
The war in Yemen, which started after anti-government rebels seized the capital Sanaa in 2014, has ruined the country. Health services have crumbled and Yemen is on the verge of famine. According to the UN, a child under the age of five dies from preventable diseases every 10 minutes in Yemen.
More than 14 million people there have no access to health services, WHO said in March, warning that transportation of medical personnel and medicine for the injured had become increasingly difficult.
“Hospitals these days are hardly working, without financing from the Yemeni government and they depend on doctors who work without salaries,” said Mr Al Sabri. He said his hospital could not treat more than 20 cases of cholera a day.
Yemen suffered a cholera outbreak in October last year, with the government saying at the time that it posed a big health risk to the population, especially children. Mr Al Sabri said that new diseases could spread with the accumulation of rubbish in the streets of Taez, Sanaa, and other northern provinces, because cleaners have been on strike since last week.
The accumulation of rainwater may also lead to the spread of mosquito- borne diseases, aggravating the suffering of the people.
Khalid Al Hagami, a professor of sociology at Taez University, said residents could also try to work out a solution for themselves. “Residents can make campaigns to clean their streets and they can educate other people about the importance of cleanliness and the dangers of cholera that can carried by water and food.”