Cholera adds to war’s toll on Yemenis

Alarming hike seen in last few weeks

Cholera, a waterborne disease that can quickly explode into a public health disaster, has begun to spread in Yemen, a war-ravaged country ill equipped to fight it.

The World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders, the international medical charity, reported Tuesday what they described as alarming increases in the number of cholera cases in Yemenin the past few weeks.

“We are very concerned that the disease will continue to spread and become out of control,” Shinjiro Murata, the head of the Yemen mission for Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement.

Dr. Murata said the charity’s teams had seen a drastic rise in cholera, treating more than 780 patients in five provinces since March 30. He called for an urgent increase in humanitarian assistance “to limit the spread of the outbreak and anticipate other potential out breaks.”

The World Health Organization, the public health arm of the United Nations, reported 2,022 suspected cases of cholera and acute watery diarrhea in Yemen from April 27 to this past Sunday, including at least 34 deaths.

Cholera has long been an underlying risk in Yemen, but it subsided during the cold winter months this year. With the sudden spike of cases, health officials are fearing the worst. “We are facing a reactivation of the cholera epidemic,” said Nevio Zagaria, WHO’s representative in Yemen.

The outbreak has affected Sanaa, the capital, where news agencies have reported on piles of garbage and clogged sewage drains related to a strike by sanitation workers exasperated over weeks of unpaid wages.

Spread by feces in contaminated water, cholera can cause severe vomiting and diarrhea, and it can lead to fatal dehydration within hours if untreated with fluids and antibiotics.

The danger of a cholera epidemic in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, has been greatly amplified by what amounts to a collapse in the public health system because of the 2-year-old war between Houthi insurgents and the government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia.