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 Her mother Safaa Issa Kaheel, then nine months pregnant, was brought
into a crowded clinic in the Western port city of Hodeidah by her
husband, who had to borrow the travel fare from a neighbor. "My
stomach started hurting more and more," said Kaheel, 37, a hydrating
drip hooked into her arm.
Once there, she was referred by nurse Hayam al-Shamaa for an
ultrasound scan which showed her baby had died of dehydration - one
of 15 to perish in the womb due to cholera in September and October,
according to doctors at the city's Thawra hospital.
"I felt like death," Kaheel said, her voice strained. "Thank god I
survived the (delivery), but my diarrhea hasn't stopped."
The Red Cross has warned that cholera, a diarrheal disease that has
been eradicated in most developed countries, could infect a million
people in Yemen by the end of the year.
Two and a half years of war have sapped Yemen of the money and
medical facilities it needs to battle the contagion, to which aid
agencies and medics say the poor, the starving, the pregnant and the
young are most vulnerable.
The cholera ward is full of children - some writhing in agony,
others eerily still. The blanket over one boy too weak to move rises
and falls with his shallow breathing.
Save the Children said in August that children under 15 represent
nearly half of new cases and a third of deaths, with malnourished
children more than six times more likely to die of cholera than
well-fed ones.
Millions of Yemenis are struggling to find food and the baking
desert plains around Hodeidah are hotspots both of hunger and
sickness.
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Yemen's war pits the armed Houthi movement against the
internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour
Hadi, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition that has launched
thousands of air strikes to restore him to power.
At least 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
The country's health sector has been badly battered while a struggle
over the central bank has left public sector salaries for doctors
and sanitation workers unpaid.
Soumaya Beltifa, spokesperson for the Red Cross in Sanaa, warned
that a lack of funds and health personnel were blunting efforts to
eradicate the disease, making it unlikely Yemen would be healthy
again soon.
"The cholera epidemic has become a norm, leading to complacency in
dealing with the disease, not only by civilians but also from the
various (aid) organizations," she warned.
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