Health Situations Worsening in Yemen: Report

Yamanyoon

Health situations in Yemen are becoming worse, as the Saudi-led war with US support continues for three years.

Many Yemenis have been affected by epidemics that have spread widely in various provinces, where some of these diseases are fatal and children are the most who get ill by them due to the lack of vaccines, as a result of the suffocating blockade on Yemen’s sea, air and land ports.

Hundreds of Yemenis of all ages have been victims of these diseases, while thousands are still at risk of being one.

International organizations accuse the Saudi-led coalition of blocking access to medical aid and child vaccines to various Yemeni governorates and cities.

Since the start of the Saudi military campaign on Yemen and its allies, in March 2015, various epidemics and diseases, some had been eradicated for years ago, have spread again, such as the cholera epidemic, of which Yemen had already declared a free country of this disease.

The cholera epidemic has spread dramatically across the country’s governorates, causing more than 1 million cases, killed more than 2,000 patients by the end of 2017, according to the World Health Organization(WHO).

It may increase in the spread more, as the summer season and rainfall begin to increase, with the risk of spreading through polluted water, which led to the World Health Organization seeking to deliver the vaccine to some citizens in Yemen, although this was difficult earlier because of logistical and technical obstacles, may be repeated this year as well.

Diphtheria disease also kills Yemenis, which spread late last year in 20 of the 23 governorates of Yemen, resulting in 1172 cases, killed 72  till February 2018.

Medical sources attributed the cause of spread the disease to the lack of immunization of children against deadly diseases, and the lack of interest of parents to access to their children for vaccines or lack of availability.

A few days ago, the Yemeni Health Ministry launched a vaccination campaign against diphtheria, targeting more than 2 million children between the ages of 6 weeks and 15 years.

Many infectious diseases are spread in a narrow range, such as meningitis, smallpox and anthrax.

The three-year war has led to the destruction of some of the health facilities in whole or in part because of the bombing and direct targeting of the Saudi-led coalition.

The deterioration of the health situation and the lack of vaccines for the children, the parents’ fears of the exposure of their children to deadly diseases that claimed the lives of dozens of Yemenis