UN: Yemen cholera outbreak kills 2,150, sickens 820,000 people

Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-14 04:01:03|Editor: yan

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- The cholera outbreak in war-torn Yemen is the largest single-year cholera outbreak ever on record, said a UN spokesman on Friday in announcing more than 2,150 associated deaths since April.

"Over 820,000 suspected cholera cases and over 2,150 associated deaths since April 27" have been reported as of Thursday, the spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters at UN Headquarters. "This is the largest single year cholera outbreak ever on record."

"The outbreak has spread to 92 percent of Yemen's districts," he said. This week the World Health Organization (WHO) chartered two flights to the traditional capital of Sanaa carrying more than 53 tons of essential medicine and medical supplies.

Dujarric said humanitarian workers reached "more than 2.2 million people with essential medicine and (medical) kits, including providing some 600,000 with medicines for non-communicable diseases."

He also said the WHO and the UN children's agency (UNICEF) were helping local health authorities in all of Yemen's governorates in a polio vaccination campaign aimed at reaching 5.3 million children under the age of five.

Yemen has been caught up in a civil war since a Shia insurgency led by Hussein al-Houthi began in 2004 and has now drawn in a Saudi Arabia-led coalition to help the government counter it.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-10/14/c_136678250.htm

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