Cholera infects one Yemeni kid every minute: Charity

Save the Children has voiced alarm over the raging spread of the cholera epidemic in war-torn Yemen, saying one child becomes infected every minute.

Cholera has killed more than 900 people and infected more than 124,000 others since late April, according to the United Nations children agency, UNICEF.

On Wednesday, Save the Children said the rate with which the Yemenis are catching the disease has tripled in just two weeks, warning that the number of the infected could rise as high as 300,000.

The disease brings along severe diarrhea, which can kill those afflicted within hours if not treated properly. Malnourished children, who number more than two million in Yemen, are especially susceptible.

Grant Pritchard, Save the Children’s representative in Yemen, said, “It’s time for the world to take action before thousands of Yemeni boys and girls perish from an entirely preventable disease.”

“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,” he added.

Pritchard further said the aerial and naval embargoes against Yemen have led to restrictions on bringing in aid and medical supplies into the country, a situation which is further complicating efforts to stop the epidemic.

British charity Oxfam estimates the waterborne disease now kills at least one person per hour in Yemen.

Meanwhile, reports coming out of Yemen say health facilities in the impoverished country remain in constant code black in the face of an overwhelming influx of cholera patients.

A nurse at a cholera unit in the capital, Sana’a, said, “Every hour we receive patients. We work here 24 hours. People come from all governorates across the country.”

Ismail Mansuri, a doctor treating cholera patients at Sabaeen Hospital, also said, “Over the past two weeks, we’ve been receiving patients at a rate of one or two, sometimes even three, per minute.”

In March 2015, the Saudi regime and its allies, backed by the US, began a military campaign against Yemen to reinstall its former government. The war has killed over 12,000 civilians since then. The invasion has been compounded by a Saudi blockade of the country.

The Saudi war has left less than half of Yemen’s medical facilities functional.

On Tuesday, Yemen’s Health Ministry said Saudi Arabia’s aerial embargo against the impoverished country has led to the deaths of around 10,000 patients, who were prevented from travelling abroad for treatment.

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• '10,000 Yemeni patients died due to Saudi seige

The Ministry’s spokesman Abdul-Hakim al-Kuhlani said some 75,000 patients were estimated to be in need of seeking treatment abroad each year.

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