Just Earh News 21 Jun 2017, 06:15 pm Print
UNICEF/Fuad
The disease is endemic in Yemen and is characterized by severe watery diarrhoea and fever.
Nearly 1,200 people have died in the latest outbreak and there are more than 172,000 suspected cases in the crisis-torn country, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Together with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), WHO says it is attempting to stop cholera being “exported” from the worst-affected areas.
In Raymah in western Yemen, mortality rates are almost twice the national average.
“We see that the numbers are going up, it's really trying to race against the spread and try to get treatment and water and sanitation measures to every corner, especially to those corners that are basically exporting the bacteria to other places” Tarik Jasarevic a spokesperson for WHO told reporters at the regular bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva.
The more than two-year conflict in the country has devastated the country's health facilities; less than half are fully functional and many public health professionals have not been paid in months.
And although cholera can be treated quickly if caught early, WHO said in a statement that getting help in a middle of a conflict “is not so easy.”
The agency added that its health, water, sanitation and hygiene partners need $66.7 million to scale up the cholera response.
To date, WHO has helped to set up 144 diarrhoea treatment centres and 206 oral rehydration points, along with more than 1,900 beds for cholera patients in 20 governorates.
- New WHO report shows smoking and drinking is on the rise among teenagers in Europe, Central Asia and Canada
- WHO prequalifies new oral simplified vaccine to combat cholera, here is all information you need to know
- Pandemic experts sound alarm over the spread of avian influenza to humans
- Nigeria is now the first country to introduce 'revolutionary' meningitis vaccine: WHO
- Pregnancy accelerates biological ageing in healthy, young adult population, finds shows