The World Health Organisation (WHO) said Tuesday (October 2nd) it was helping Yemeni authorities with a second round of vaccination against cholera in three hard-hit districts, as cases surged across the war-ravaged country, AFP reported.
More than 2,500 people have died of the waterborne infection since the worst cholera outbreak in Yemen's history began in April 2017, while nearly one million more suspected cases have been reported across the country.
Children under the age of five make up nearly a third of all suspected cases.
Yemen's cholera epidemic had seemed to lull for a while, but WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic warned of a new escalation.
"We have been seeing the number of cholera cases increasing in Yemen since June, and this increase has been even more important in the last three weeks," he told reporters in Geneva.
During the first eight months of the year, Yemen registered nearly 155,000 suspected cholera cases, including 197 deaths.
But in the last week of August alone, 9,425 suspected cholera cases were recorded across the country, and just a week later, the number of suspected cases recorded soared to 11,478, WHO said.
WHO has warned Yemen faces a third cholera epidemic as autumn rains have increased the risk of infection after already being hit by two major cholera outbreaks in less than two years.
In a bid to prevent a "third wave", WHO, UNICEF and other partners began helping the government on September 30th to provide a second dose of the two-dose oral vaccination in three of the most vulnerable districts, he said.
Save The Children warned Tuesday that al-Hodeidah, the Yemeni port city on the front line between a pro-government alliance and the Iran-backed Houthis (Ansarallah), had seen cases nearly triple in the past three months alone.
