Yemen : the cholera outbreak is beginning the decline

Unicef

Published the 30.08.2017 at 18h17

A A

Keywords :

Yémencholéraépidémie

More than 550 000 people affected and more than 2,000 deaths. The balance sheet of the epidemic of cholera, which directly affects the Yemen since the end of the month of April is dramatic. It is the largest ever recorded, since the beginning of surveillance of the disease in 1949.

But a break is felt. In a communiqué issued on Monday, Unicef announces a weakening of the outbreak. “Thanks to an unprecedented mobilization of local workers, and with the help of NGOS and un organisations, the number of reports of new cases is down by a third since the end of the month of June “.

Hospitals overwhelmed

These efforts to heal the sick and improve the health conditions of access to drinking water help to slow the spread of the disease, according to the un organization. The treatment of cholera is, however, in principle, not complicated : sanitation of drinking water with chlorine to prevent contamination, and antibiotics and rehydration for those infected. But the magnitude of the epidemic has surprised.

“We have struggled to manage the number of patients who have flocked, and most of which were in a poor state, has recognized Dr. Nahia Arishi, head of the centre for cholera treatment at the hospital Alsadaqah of Aden City in the south of the country. The hospital is crowded, and we’re running out of beds as of essential medicines. But I can’t close the doors and reject children just because we don’t have enough beds. “Half of the cases are registered in children.