UNICEF: 32% of cholera deaths in Yemen are children

Yamanyoon- 16 Oct 2017

Some 32 per cent of cholera deaths in Yemen are children under the age of 15 due to Saudi airstrikes and blockade, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said yesterday.

“Children under 15 represent 50 per cent of total suspected cholera cases and 32 per cent of the deaths,” UNICEF in Yemen said on its official Twitter account.

The organisation did not indicate the areas with the highest death rates but noted “the declining rates of infection from the epidemic”.

A report by World Health Organisation (WHO) released yesterday said the number of cholera deaths in Yemen has reached 2,165 since the outbreak of the epidemic while the number of suspected cases has reached 843,000 cases.

The United Nations said on Friday that the cholera epidemic has now spread to 92 per cent of Yemen’s territory.

According to the United Nations, humanitarian workers have reached more than 2.2 million people and provided some 600,000 people with medicines for non-communicable diseases.