Yemen’s cholera outbreak is largest in recorded history

The cholera outbreak in war-torn Yemen is still infecting 5,000 patients per day and has grown to become the largest single-year outbreak of the diarrheal disease in recorded history, officials said.

In just 3 months, the outbreak has caused 368,207 suspected cases and 1,828 deaths, according to WHO. The world health agency said the number of suspected cases has declined over the past 2 weeks in some of the hardest hit areas but warned that the pace of transmission could increase as the rainy season sets in.

According to the anti-poverty charity group Oxfam, it is the largest outbreak of cholera in one country in a single year, surpassing more than 340,000 cases recorded in Haiti in 2011.

“Cholera has spread unchecked in a country already on its knees after 2 years of war and teetering on the brink of famine. For many people, weakened by war and hunger, cholera is the knockout blow,” Nigel Timmins, MSc, humanitarian director for Oxfam, said after returning from Yemen.

The civil war in Yemen has forced more than half of the country’s health centers to close, leaving 14.8 million people without access to basic health care and almost as many without regular access to clean water and sanitation, according to WHO. Even more people — 17 million, WHO said — are food insecure.

WHO sent a large shipment of supplies to Yemen earlier this month and said ongoing efforts that include providing access to clean water and sanitation, setting up treatment centers, training health workers and reinforcing surveillance need to be scaled up.

WHO said the ongoing conflict has made it hard to access populations affected by the outbreak, and that health and sanitation workers have not been paid in more than 8 months.

Cholera is rare in the United States and other industrialized countries, according to the CDC, but cases of the potentially life-threatening disease have steadily increased since 2005 in other parts of the globe.

The disease impacts vulnerable populations. WHO said children younger than the age of 15 years account for 41% of all suspected cases, and patients older than the age of 60 years account for one-third of all cholera deaths. – by Gerard Gallagher

Reference:

WHO. Yemen crisis. 2017. http://who.int/emergencies/yemen/en/. Accessed July 21, 2017.

Disclosure: Timmins is the humanitarian director for Oxfam.