Yemen. Cholera epidemic becomes worse

by C. Alessandro Mauceri – 

While discussing about laws to impose the use of vaccines in Italy ad other European countries, in Yemen cholera has become a serious danger for everyone. The total number of suspected cholera cases in this country hit the half a million mark and nearly 2000 people have died since the outbreak began to spread rapidly at the end of April. To launch the alarm is the OMS: across the country, 5000 people per day are infecting.
Thanks to the peace mission Yemen’s cholera epidemic has become the largest in the world. It has spread rapidly due to deteriorating hygiene and sanitation conditions and disruptions to the water supply across the country destroyed by bombs sold by several countries to the coalition that is destroying Yemen where millions of people are cut off from clean water, and waste collection has ceased in major cities.
Situation is becoming even worst because of shortages in medicines and supplies and 30.000 critical health workers have not been paid salaries in nearly a year. They “are operating in impossible conditions. Thousands of people are sick, but there are not enough hospitals, not enough medicines, not enough clean water. These doctors and nurses are the backbone of the health response – without them we can do nothing in Yemen. They must be paid their wages so that they can continue to save lives,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
A great percentage of people sick with suspected cholera could survive. But nearly 15 million people are unable to get basic healthcare because of the peace mission. “To save lives in Yemen today we must support the health system, especially the health workers. And we urge the Yemeni authorities – and all those in the region and elsewhere who can play a role – to find a political solution to this conflict that has already caused so much suffering. The people of Yemen cannot bear it much longer – they need peace to rebuild their lives and their country,” said Dr. Tedros.
“The tragedy is both malnutrition and cholera are easily treatable if you have access to basic healthcare,” confirmed Tamer Kirolos, Save the Children’s country director for Yemen. Situation is particularly dramatic for children: more than 1 million malnourished children aged under five are living in areas with high levels of cholera (data Save The Children). Children under the age of 15 are now accounting for about 44% of new cases and 32% of fatalities in Yemen.
More than one million malnourished children aged under five – including 200,000 with severe acute malnutrition – were living in cholera hotspots. Millions are malnourished in Yemen where famine looms, the UN says. Growth of epidemic problem in Yemen has become “the largest ever recorded in any country in a single year since records began” – exceeding Haiti in 2011, said Oxfam.