Yemen cholera outbreak tops 300,000 suspected cases

GENEVA, Switzerland — A cholera outbreak in Yemen has now surpassed 300,000 suspected cases, the Red Cross said Monday as the war-torn country reels from disease as well as the threat of famine.

“Today, over 300,000 people are suspected to be ill,” it said in a Twitter post. ICRC spokeswoman Iolanda Jaquemet said the death toll now stands at more than 1,700.

ICRC regional director Robert Mardini said about 7,000 new cholera cases were being recorded daily in the capital Sanaa and three other areas.

The collapse of Yemen’s infrastructure after more than two years of war between the Saudi-backed government and Shiite rebels who control Sanaa has made for a “perfect storm for cholera,” according to the World Health Organization.

Cholera is a highly contagious bacterial infection that is spread through contaminated food or water. Although the disease is easily treatable, doing so in Yemen has proven particularly difficult. The war left fewer than half of the country’s medical facilities functional.

The WHO’s own figures for the outbreak list 262,649 suspected cases and 1,587 deaths as of July 2, in 21 of 23 Yemeni governorates. It is expected to update those numbers shortly.

The battle against cholera has caused aid groups to pull resources away from fighting malnutrition among Yemen’s war-weary people, raising the risk of famine, as they struggle to find funds, a UN official warned last week.

Jamie McGoldrick, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, said much of the $1.1 billion in aid pledged by donor governments in April to deal with the hard-pressed population’s needs had yet to be disbursed, leaving relief agencies struggling to get their hands on new money.

“Humanitarian organizations have had to reprogram their resources away from malnutrition and reuse them to control the cholera outbreak,” he said in Sanaa on Thursday.”And if we don’t get these resources replaced, then using those resources for cholera will mean that food insecurity will suffer. We’re trying to do our best, but it’s very much beyond what we can cope with.”

About 17 million people — two-thirds of Yemen’s population — are uncertain of where their next meal will come from, according to the World Food Programme.