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 Dr. Nevio Zagaria, WHO country representative in Yemen, told Reuters
that 16 percent of Yemeni children under the age of five suffer from
acute malnutrition, including 5.2 percent with a severe form that is
life-threatening, and the problem is increasing.
Yemen, where 8 million people face famine, is mired in a proxy war
between the Iran-aligned Houthi armed movement and the U.S.-backed
military coalition that the United Nations says has led to the
world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Some 960,000 suspected cases of cholera and 2,219 deaths have been
reported since the epidemic began in April, WHO figures show.
Children account for nearly a third of infections of the waterborne
disease, spread by food or water contaminated with human feces, that
causes acute diarrhoea and dehydration and can kill within hours if
untreated.
Although the number of new cases has dropped for 11 straight weeks,
35 districts in Yemen are still reporting cholera with "high attack
rates" in communities, Zagaria said.
A deteriorating economic situation and lack of safe drinking water,
due to water sewage systems in many cities lacking fuel for the
pumps, have compounded the humanitarian crisis, he said.
"This is a perfect mix to have a new explosion of a cholera epidemic
at the beginning of the rainy season in March of next year," Zagaria
said in a telephone interview from Sanaa, amid four days of clashes
in the capital city.
WHO is working with local authorities in both the internationally
recognized government and Houthi-controlled Sana'a to identify areas
at highest risk of a spike in the cholera epidemic and to boost
defences, he said.
A campaign of oral cholera vaccination - initially planned last July
during an acute phase and then abandoned by authorities - is now
under reconsideration but as a preventive action next year, he said.
Meanwhile, a ship carrying 35 tonnes of WHO surgical and medical
supplies is being diverted to Aden after waiting weeks to offload at
Hodeidah port, Zagaria said.
"We are waiting and hoping that the situation of the blockade will
be resolved. We have an opening to the humanitarian blockade but the
opening to the commercial blockade is only partial," he added.
The United Nations appealed on Friday to the coalition to fully lift
its blockade of Yemen, which was partially eased last week to let
aid into Hodeidah and Salif, and U.N. flights into Sanaa.
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The U.S.-backed military coalition closed air, land and sea access
on Nov. 6 in a move it said was to stop the flow of Iranian arms to
the Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen.
Aid shipments cover only a fraction of Yemen's needs, since almost
all food, fuel and medicine are commercially imported.
CONSTANT FLOW OF PATIENTS
Yemen's health system has virtually collapsed, with most health
workers unpaid for seven months.
WHO supports 130 hospitals across the country, providing fuel,
water, oxygen, drugs, medical supplies and essential equipment,
Zagaria said.
"The (fuel) contractors that we are working with are finding
difficulty in keeping the stock," he said, noting that some
hospitals require 60,000 liters of fuel per month.
WHO runs 15 stabilization centers for severely acute malnourished
children with medical complications and is expanding with 10 more,
Zagaria said.
"We see that there is a constant flow of newly admitted patients to
these centers.
"The deterioration of the situation in terms of malnutrition in
children is increasing... It is very difficult to quantify with
precise numbers," said Zagaria, who went to the intensive care unit
of the pediatric ward in Sadaa last week.
"I am a pediatrician, I worked many years in Africa. You don't need
to take the weight and the height."
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Susan Fenton)
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