Yemen cholera outbreak claims 47 lives in 2 weeks, says UN
The UN has confirmed at least 47 cholera-associated deaths across Yemen in the past two weeks, several months after the outbreak of the infectious disease was declared in the war-torn Arab country.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Thursday that at least 2,301 suspected cases were identified in several governorates, including the capital Sana’a.
Laboratory testing confirmed the highly contagious infection in 10 governorates in the north, south and along the Red Sea coast, the UN agency said.
On Tuesday, Doctors Without Borders said it had independently treated nearly 800 cases of cholera and acute watery diarrhea in Yemen since March 30.
The charity group, also known as the MSF by its French acronym, said patients were traveling dozens of kilometers in difficult conditions to reach treatment centers.
Last October, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the grim news of cholera outbreak in Yemen, and three weeks later the number of cholera cases across the country soared to hundreds.
Last year, nearly 130 people lost their lives due to an outbreak of cholera and acute watery diarrhea in Yemen.
Cholera, which causes severe diarrhea and dehydration, is transmitted through contaminated drinking water and could prove fatal in up to 15 percent of untreated cases.
Over two years of Saudi Arabia's full-scale war on the impoverished country has put more than half of all health facilities in Yemen in a state of complete or partial shutdown.
Nearly 3.3 million Yemeni people, including 2.1 million children, are currently suffering from acute malnutrition, with more than seven million Yemenis facing the plight of starvation.
Since March 2015, the Saudi kingdom has been waging a brutal aerial campaign against Yemen in an attempt to reinstall Hadi -- a staunch ally of Riyadh who resigned as president in 2015.
It also aims to crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement, which is now playing a key role in defending the nation against the Saudi aggression as well as running the affairs of the war-torn country.
Latest tallies indicate that the Saudi war on Yemen has so far killed over 12,000 Yemenis and wounded thousands more. The Saudi aggression has also taken a heavy toll on the country's public and commercial facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories.
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