Biosecurity

Cholera death toll climbs to 115 in Yemen, 1,000s infected in outbreak

A cholera outbreak in Yemen has claimed the lives of 115 people while some 8,500 others are suffering from the infection, medics say. A state of emergency has been declared in the capital Sana’a.

The Yemeni Health Ministry has called on humanitarian organizations and other aid donors to help stop the epidemic and avert an "unprecedented disaster," Reuters reported.

The outbreak of the waterborne disease is the second Yemen has suffered in less than a year.

“We now are facing a serious outbreak of cholera,” Director of Operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross Dominik Stillhart told a news conference in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, on Sunday.

Citing figures compiled by Yemen’s Health Ministry, he reported that 115 people had died of cholera between April 27 and Saturday. This is a dramatic jump from the death toll of 51 cited by the World Health Organization earlier on Thursday, marking a rapidly worsening situation.