According to the latest WHO count, the cholera epidemic has claimed 503,484 lives in Yemen since the spring.
Yemen faces one of the worst cholera epidemics in its history. The figures relating to the humanitarian crisis in this country at war make you dizzy. The number of cholera cases continues to explode and has passed the half-million mark, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Monday. According to the UN agency, 503,484 suspected cases and 1,975 deaths due to cholera have been recorded since the end of April.
More than a quarter of the dead and more than 41% of the sick are children, said the WHO. The only encouraging news: the speed at which the epidemic is spreading has “significantly slowed down since early July”. However, 5,000 people are infected every day.
No access to healthcare
Yemen is torn by civil war. The conflict complicates the delivery of medicines and the arrival of international humanitarian aid. After a first epidemic last year, cholera reappeared in this country, one of the poorest in the world.
Millions of Yemenis are deprived of safe drinking water, making it easier for the epidemic to spread. “Health workers in Yemen are working under impossible conditions,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. Thousands of people are sick, but there are not enough hospitals, medicines, clean water, ”he said, adding that many doctors and nurses had not been paid for nearly. one year.
According to the WHO, more than 99% of people with cholera can survive if they have access to health services. But more than 15 million Yemenis have no access to basic health care. Tedros called on the parties to the conflict, which has claimed more than 8,300 lives since March 2015, to urgently seek a political solution. “Yemenis cannot stand this situation any longer. They need peace to rebuild their life and their country, ”he insisted.
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