Yemen Cholera Factsheet April 2019
Current situation
- 137,736 suspected cases & 266 associated deaths from 1 January to 24 March 2019
- 21 out of Yemen’s 23 governorates and 268 out of Yemen’s 333 districts are affected Children under five make up around a quarter of cases
Yemen is facing a third outbreak of cholera that threatens to worsen the country’s already dire humanitarian crisis. The lack of a functioning health system as well as limited access to safe water and hygiene makes it very difficult to control the spread of the disease. 24 million people in Yemen require humanitarian assistance, with 17.8 million lacking access to safe water and sanitation services.
More than half of all health facilities in Yemen are closed or partially functioning as a result of the conflict.
CARE’s Response
As part of the WASH Cluster scale-up in 2019 CARE is distributing aquatabs which enable households to chlorinate their water; as well as training community health volunteers to conduct hygiene awareness sessions focused on cholera prevention measures, types of chlorine and usages, and hygiene messages; and distributing information, education and communication materials which help to educate and inform people about the risks of cholera and the steps they can take to prevent the disease. CARE is working in 25 districts across 8 governorates of Yemen.
The numbers of suspected and confirmed cases of cholera and acute watery diarrhoea are on the increase, particularly in Sana’a, but also in Hajjah, which is heavily affected by famine, fighting and displacement. CARE is working alongside other organisations to try to prevent the spread of cholera but more funding is urgently needed to scale up sufficiently in order to save lives.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-cholera-factsheet-april-2019
