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Cholera Plagues Yemen, State of Emergency Declared

Cholera Plagues Yemen, State of Emergency Declared
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Local Editor

Officials in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa declared a state of emergency on Sunday after a deadly outbreak of cholera, which had killed dozens of people.

Cholera Plagues Yemen, State of Emergency Declared

Yemen's health ministry called on humanitarian organizations and other aid donors to help it deal with the epidemic and avert an "unprecedented disaster". The health system, severely degraded by more than two years of war that also displaced millions, cannot cope, the state news agency, Saba, said.

In a statement on al-Masira channel, Hafid bin Salem Mohammed, Yemen's Health Minister, said the "scale of the disease is beyond the capacity" of his department.

Yemen is reeling from conflict between the Ansarullah revolutionaries and a Western-backed, Saudi-led coalition. More than 10,000 people had been martyred, mostly by almost-daily air strikes, since the aggression on Yemen began.

Only a few medical facilities are still functioning and two-thirds of the population are without access to safe drinking water, the United Nations had said. An epidemic late last year faded but outbreaks of cholera are becoming more frequent.

The diarrhea disease had killed 51 people since April 27, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, and 2,752 people are suspected cases. Fifty eight more cases had been confirmed.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] said Sunday the cholera outbreak had killed 115 people and left 8,500 ill between April 27 and Saturday.

International relief agencies Sunday warned of a catastrophic humanitarian situation and urged citizens to exercise hygiene precautions.

"We now are facing a serious outbreak of cholera," Dominik Stillhart, the director of operations at the ICRC, told a news conference in Sanaa.

Doctors without Borders [MSF] expressed fears that health authorities alone will not be able to deal with the outbreak.

"MSF calls on international organizations to scale up their assistance urgently to limit the spread of the outbreak and anticipate potential other ones," it said in a statement.

Sanaa had been worst hit by the outbreaks, followed by the surround province of Amanat al-Semah, WHO data had shown. Cases had also been reported in other major cities including Hodeidah, Taiz and Aden.

WHO said that 7.6 million people live in areas at high risk of cholera transmission.

According to the UN, some 17 million of Yemen's 26 million people lack sufficient food and at least three million malnourished children are in "grave peril.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team

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