Yemen hit by world’s worst cholera outbreak
Saudi Arabia joins UN to shell out millions of dollars to stem outbreak of disease
The UN health agency says there are now more than 200,000 suspected cases of cholera in an outbreak in war-torn Yemen, many of them children.
Unicef director Anthony Lake and World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Margaret Chan said in a statement, “we are now facing the worst cholera outbreak in the world,” with an average of 5,000 new cases every day.
The agencies say that more than 1,300 people have died — one quarter of them children — and the death toll is expected to rise.
The UN says collapsing health, water and sanitation systems have cut off 14.5 million people from regular access to clean water and sanitation, increasing the ability of the disease to spread.
In addition, an estimated 30,000 local health workers have not been paid for nearly 10 months.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia have been in the forefront of delivering muchneeded aid to the Yemenis. The Emirates Red Crescent, in coordination with the WHO, has provided Dh33 million for vaccinations and other medicines.
Saudi Arabia has also donated $66.7 million to Unicef, WHO and their partners to mitigate the suffering of the Yemenis.
Yemen is now facing the worst cholera outbreak in the world with suspected cases exceeding 200,000 and the number is increasing at an average of 5,000 a day, the United Nations has warned.
According to the UN News Centre, Anthony Lake, Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund, Unicef, and Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organisation, WHO, said in a joint statement that in just two months, cholera has spread to almost every governorate of the war-torn country.
Already, more than 1,300 people have died, one quarter of them children, and the death toll is expected to rise.
“Unicef, WHO and our partners are racing to stop the acceleration of this deadly outbreak,” they said, also calling on authorities in Yemen to strengthen their internal efforts to stop the outbreak from spreading further.
UN officials said that collapsing health, water and sanitation systems have cut off 14.5 million people from regular access to clean water and sanitation, increasing the ability of the disease to spread.
The UN officials also said that rising rates of malnutrition have weakened children’s health and made them more vulnerable to disease.
Saudi Arabia has planned to shell out millions of dollars to stem a serious outbreak of cholera in Yemen, the media reported. On Friday, Riyadh announced a donation of $66 million (Dh242 million) to Unicef, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and their partners to fight the disease, reports CNN.
Cholera — an ailment caused by contaminated water and now exacerbated by delays in supplies reaching medical facilities — shows up in war zones; the number of cases are mounting by the day in Yemen.
“Saudi Arabia is committed to working closely with our aid partners to effectively address the cholera and general humanitarian situation in Yemen,” said Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Rabeeah, adviser at the royal court and general supervisor of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre.
“We will continue to work with our partners across a broad range of humanitarian and relief efforts for the people of Yemen.”