Yemen’s Children Face Worst Diphtheria Outbreak

Deaths caused by diphtheria, a serious bacterial infection, are “likely to rise” in Yemen if a blockade imposed by a US-backed Saudi-led military coalition is not lifted, a major international charity has warned.

Save the Children said in a statement on Sunday that minors in the war-torn country were the most affected in what it called “the worst diphtheria outbreak for a generation”, Al Jazeera reported.

Diphtheria is a contagious infection that targets the body’s respiratory system. Though preventable by vaccines, it can lead to breathing problems, heart failure and death.

Since August, the aid organization said it recorded at least 52 deaths from the disease, the majority of which were children under the age of 15.

Some 716 others were infected during the same time period.

“There’s so little help right now that families are carrying their children for hundreds of miles to get to us,” Mariam Aldogani, the group’s field coordinator in the port city of Hudaida, said.

“But they’re arriving too late and infecting people on the way.”

According to Save the Children, the outbreak has hit the western provinces of Ibb and Hudaida the hardest.

Apart from severe food and fuel shortages, Yemen’s population is already facing an ongoing widespread cholera epidemic, described as the world’s worst, and an outbreak of acute watery diarrhea.

The United Nations has said that spread of disease is “man-made”, referring to the war between Houthi fighters and the Saudi-led coalition that is fighting them.

Saudi Arabia launched a massive aerial campaign against the Houthi fighters in March 2015, aimed at restoring the government of president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, a Riyadh’s ally.

The Saudi-led coalition closed air, land and sea access to the Arabian peninsula country for all humanitarian workers and organizations on November 6, saying the blockade would stop arms from reaching Houthi fighters.