UN health agency scales up efforts to tackle upsurge of cholera in Yemen

The World Health Organization (WHO) and partners are responding to an upsurge in cholera transmission in several parts of Yemen that has claimed 51 lives, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters here Thursday.

The number of suspected cholera cases is 2,301, of which 58 have been confirmed by laboratory testing, Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here, citing information from the Yemeni Ministry of Health.

"WHO has rapidly distributed medicines and medical supplies, including cholera kits, oral rehydration solutions and intravenous (IV) fluids, as well as medical furniture and equipment for diarrhoea treatment centres," he said. "Ten new treatment centres are being established in affected areas."

"WHO is also supporting health authorities to establish oral rehydration therapy corners to treat mild and moderate dehydration due to diarrhoea, he said.

Starting with 10 oral rehydration therapy corners in Sana'a, the Yemeni capital, this approach will be replicated across all affected areas, he added.

A total of 69 new cases of cholera were registered to a state-run hospital in Sana'a in early May, reports said.

Last October, WHO reported 51 confirmed cases of cholera from nine governorates in Yemen, with more than 1,180 suspected cases.

Some 7.6 million Yemenis are living in affected areas in the conflict-ridden country, whose health system has collapsed due to a prolonged civil war.

The impoverished Arab country in the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, was plunged into a civil war two years ago, leaving more than 10,000 dead with half of them civilians, and over 2 million people displaced, according to humanitarian agencies. Enditem