YEMEN: Surge in suspected cholera cases in Hodeidah

Save the Children is reporting a nearly 3-fold increase of suspected cholera cases in Hodeidah in just three months. Between June and August this year Save the Children-supported health facilities recorded a 170 per cent increase in the number of suspected cholera cases, from 497 in June to 1,342 in August. This is in line with national data that also shows a steady increase of suspected cholera cases across Yemen. Thirty per cent of all suspected cases are children under 5-years-old, according to the World Health Organization.

Cholera is an infectious disease transmitted through contaminated food or water.

The rise in suspected cases in Hodeidah coincides with a dramatic increase in fighting between the Houthis and forces backed by the Saudi- and Emirati-led Coalition in June. In July, airstrikes led to the damage of a sanitation facility and water station that supplies Hodeidah with most of its water. After this incident, suspected cholera cases almost doubled between July (732) and August (1,342) in Save the Children-supported health centres.

As battles intensify around Hodeidah’s port city, Save the Children is again warning of a humanitarian catastrophe should the ground fighting reach densely populated areas or if the city should be besieged.

The area is also home to nearly 100,000 severely malnourished children – more than a quarter of Yemen’s total. These children are much more likely to contract and die from diarrhoeal diseases like cholera than well-nourished children.

In addition, over half a million people have been displaced from their homes in Hodeidah since June, forced to live in host communities in cramped conditions and with little access to clean water and sanitation. Yemen’s rainy season is further compounding the problem.

Tamer Kirolos, Save the Children’s Yemen Country Director, said:

“Children in Yemen are experiencing severe hardships that no child should endure, facing multiple threats from bombs and bullets, to disease and extreme hunger. It’s unacceptable that they’re dying from entirely preventable causes.

“Treating cholera is straightforward, providing children can get the rehydration and antibiotics they need. But almost four years of conflict has led to a near-total collapse of the health system in Yemen. The warring parties have repeatedly attacked medical facilities, making some of them unusable or inaccessible. If this continues many more children could die of cholera and other preventable diseases.

“The solution is simple. The fighting must stop and the parties to the conflict need to find a political solution. In the meantime, Save the Children will continue to distribute medicine and support clinics to reach the most vulnerable children, before it’s too late.”

Speaking from Hodeidah, Dr Mariam Aldogani, Save the Children’s Hodeidah Field Manager, said:

“The situation in Hodeidah has become unbearable because of the conflict. I’m seeing more and more children coming in with suspected cholera. I met one mother of two who has acute diarrhoea and she told me her whole family is affected because they don’t have access to clean water anymore. They all drink from an open well and don’t even have enough money to buy cooking gas needed to boil the contaminated water they collect. Her husband hasn’t been paid a salary since last year. She knows she’s putting her children’s health at risk. But what can she do, when they cry from thirst? So they just drink, and hope for the best.”

Access to clean water is crucial in bringing a cholera outbreak under control. But Yemen is the most water-scarce country in the Arab world. Even before the war began experts feared Yemen could become the first country in the world to run out of usable water. Nearly four years of conflict have only made matters worse.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Please find digital content from Save the Children here:  https://www.contenthubsavethechildren.org/Package/2O4C2SJ401EX

• Hodeidah is the epicentre of Yemen’s cholera outbreak with a cumulative total of more than 23,000 suspected cases so far this year, 7,000 of them children under five years old, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
• Other parts of Yemen are also reporting an increase in cholera. Suspected cholera cases nearly doubled in Save the Children-supported health facilities in Ibb governorate between June (383) and August (746) this year.
• One in four children under 5-years-old in Hodeidah governorate are malnourished. One in 20 suffer from severe acute malnutrition – the deadliest form of extreme hunger. Hodeaidah has a Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rate of 25.2% and a Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) rate of 5%.
• Severely malnourished children (SAM) are more than 12 times more likely to die from diarrheal diseases like cholera than well-nourished children. For more see here.
• In 2017, Yemen witnessed the worst recorded cholera outbreak since records began with well over one million suspected cases, 600,000 of them children.
• During last year’s cholera outbreak, Save the Children supported 15 Diarrheal Treatment Centres (DTCs) and Oral Rehydration Therapy points across Yemen. As cases decreased after the second wave, Save the Children closed these DTCs but continued to monitor the situation very closely. With the renewed increase of cholera cases this year, Save the Children has reopened several DTCs, including three in Hodeidah governorate.
• The number of people lacking adequate access to healthcare increased to 16.4 million in 2018, of whom 9.3 million are in acute need of assistance to health care. For more see here.
• The humanitarian crisis in Yemen is widely acknowledged as the worst in the world. According to UNICEF, 22.2 million people – including 11.3 million children – are in need of humanitarian assistance. Sixty per cent of the country’s population is hungry, including 8.4 million acutely food insecure people who do not know where their next meal will come from, half of them children under 18 years.
• Save the Children has over 50 years of experience working in Yemen. Operational in the country since 1963, the charity was the first international aid group in Yemen. We work nationally and locally to promote and protect children’s rights, with programmes in education, protection, health, nutrition, water, livelihoods, and food security. For more see here.
• Save the Children stands side by side with children around the world, doing whatever it takes to ensure they survive, get protection when in danger, and have the chance to learn. Together, we fight for children every single day.