2016–2022 Yemen cholera outbreak

2016–2021 Yemen cholera outbreak
Map of Yemen on the globe
DiseaseCholera
Bacteria strainVibrio cholerae
First outbreakYemeni Civil War
Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen
Saudi Blockade of Yemen
Famine in Yemen (2016–present)
DatesOctober 2016–November 2021
(8 years and 10 months)
Suspected cases‡2,510,806 through December 2020[1]
Deaths
3,981[1]
‡Suspected cases have not been confirmed by laboratory tests as being due to this strain, although some other strains may have been ruled out.

An outbreak of cholera began in Yemen in October 2016.[2][3][4] The outbreak peaked in 2017 with over 2,000 reported deaths in that year alone.[5][6] In 2017 and 2019, war-torn Yemen accounted for 84% and 93% of all cholera cases in the world, with children constituting the majority of reported cases.[7] As of November 2021, there have been more than 2.5 million cases reported, and more than 4,000 people have died in the Yemen cholera outbreak, which the United Nations deemed the worst humanitarian crisis in the world at that time.[8][9] However, the outbreak has substantially decreased by 2021, with a successful vaccination program implemented and only 5,676 suspected cases with two deaths reported between January 1 and March 6 of 2021.[10]

Vulnerable to water-borne diseases before the conflict, 16 months went by before a program of oral vaccines was started.[8] The cholera outbreak was worsened as a result of the ongoing civil war and the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen against the Houthi movement that began in March 2015.[8][6] Airstrikes damaged hospital infrastructure,[11] and water supply and sanitation in Yemen were affected by the ongoing conflict.[6][12] The government of Yemen stopped funding public health in 2016;[13] sanitation workers were not paid by the government, causing garbage to accumulate,[11] and healthcare workers either fled the country or were not paid.[6]

The UNICEF and World Health Organization (WHO) executive directors stated: "This deadly cholera outbreak is the direct consequence of two years of heavy conflict. Collapsing health, water and sanitation systems have cut off 14.5 million people from regular access to clean water and sanitation, increasing the ability of the disease to spread. Rising rates of malnutrition have weakened children's health and made them more vulnerable to disease. An estimated 30,000 dedicated local health workers who play the largest role in ending this outbreak have not been paid their salaries for nearly ten months."[14]

  1. ^ a b "CHOLERA SITUATION IN YEMEN" (PDF). WHO OCHA reliefweb. December 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 March 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  2. ^ Raslan R, El Sayegh S, Chams S, Chams N, Leone A, Hajj Hussein I (2017). "Re-Emerging Vaccine-Preventable Diseases in War-Affected Peoples of the Eastern Mediterranean Region-An Update". Frontiers in Public Health (Review). 5: 283. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2017.00283. PMC 5661270. PMID 29119098.
  3. ^ "Yemen: Health Cluster Bulletin, December 2020 - Yemen". ReliefWeb. 15 February 2021. Archived from the original on 15 February 2021. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :5 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "WHO EMRO Outbreak update - cholera in Yemen, 19 December 2017 Cholera Epidemic and pandemic diseases". www.emro.who.int. Archived from the original on 1 December 2018. Retrieved 10 November 2018.
  6. ^ a b c d Qadri F, Islam T, Clemens JD (November 2017). "Cholera in Yemen - An Old Foe Rearing Its Ugly Head". The New England Journal of Medicine. 377 (21): 2005–2007. doi:10.1056/NEJMp1712099. PMID 29091747.
  7. ^ "Cholera – Global situation". www.who.int. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  8. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Federspiel was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ "Humanitarian crisis in Yemen remains the worst in the world, warns UN". UN News. United Nations. 14 February 2019. Archived from the original on 27 December 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference unicef_2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ a b Snyder S (15 May 2017). "Thousands in Yemen get sick in an entirely preventable cholera outbreak". Public Radio International. Archived from the original on 25 July 2018. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  12. ^ "Access to water continues to be jeopardized for millions of children in war-torn Yemen". UNICEF. 24 July 2018. Archived from the original on 25 July 2018. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Guardian12October was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference WHO_UNICEF was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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