Cholera infecting a child each minute in Yemen

YEMEN: A cholera epidemic raging across Yemen is spiralling out of control, with about one child falling sick every minute, an aid agency has warned.

Thousands of people could die in the coming months with up to 300,000 cases predicted, Save the Children said.

Two years of civil war, nearfamine conditions and a lack of access to clean water have exacerbated the spread of cholera – a diarrhoeal disease that can kill within hours.

The country’s health system – already on its knees – is reeling with hospitals overwhelmed and quickly running out of medicines and intravenous fluids.

The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said more than 920 people had died from the disease since late April and more than 124,000 cases had been recorded.

Grant Pritchard, Save the Children’s representative in Yemen, called for an increase in emergency funding.

‘‘Disease, starvation and war are causing a perfect storm of disaster for Yemen’s people. The region’s poorest country is on the verge of total collapse, and children are dying because they’re not able to access basic healthcare.’’

Yemen’s civil war has left 19 million people needing humanitarian aid with many on the verge of famine.

More than 2 million children are acutely malnourished making them particularly vulnerable to cholera as their weakened systems are less able to fight off disease, Save the Children said.

Pritchard said restrictions on bringing aid and medical supplies into Yemen were compounding difficulties in halting the epidemic. – Thomson Reuters Foundation