Cholera outbreak hits war-torn Yemen: UNICEFWar-torn Yemen is suffering from a cholera outbreak, the UN’s children agency and the World Health Organization said Friday, posing a further threat to infants in the impoverished nation. “This outbreak adds to the misery of millions of children in Yemen,” UNICEF Yemen representative Julien Harneis said in a statement. UNICEF said health professionals in Sanaa had reported several cases, as had medics in Taez, Yemen’s third largest city. UNICEF said that cholera, a disease that is transmitted through contaminated drinking water and causes acute diarrhoea, could prove fatal in up to 15 percent of untreated cases. The agency says nearly three million people in Yemen are in need of immediate food supplies, while 1.5 million children suffer malnutrition, including 370,000 enduring very severe malnutrition that weakens their immune system.

Source: Manila Bulletin October 08, 2016 02:15 UTC