Yemen Cholera Cases Cross 100,000

The number of suspected cholera cases in war-torn Yemen has risen to more than 100,000 since an outbreak began on April 27, the World Health Organization said on Thursday. The rapid spread of the disease through 19 of Yemen’s 23 governorates highlighted a humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen after two years of civil war that has disabled most healthcare facilities, according to the UN. “To date, 101,820 suspected cholera cases and 789 deaths have been reported in 19 governorates,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told Reuters. The global health agency has warned that the number of cases could hit 300,000, but the daily number of new ones declined slightly in the week to June 5 to 3,432, compared with 3,651 in the previous seven-day period. The war has left 19 million of its 28 million people needing humanitarian aid and many of them on the verge of starvation.