Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Saudi Arabia Responds to Cholera Outbreak in Yemen | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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An old man infected with cholera lies on the bed at a hospital in Sana’a, Yemen May 12, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed al-Sayaghi


Riyadh– Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz has ordered the Kingdom to respond urgently to the cholera outbreak in Yemen, through coordination between King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aid (KSRELIEF), the Yemeni Ministry of health, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.

KSRELIEF set up a taskforce on emergency medical intervention to contain the deadly disease, according to its general supervisor Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabia.

“KSRELIEF is working with the ministries of health of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen to arrange the treatment and prevention efforts,” Rabia said in a statement, following a meeting with Yemeni President Abed Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who was visiting KSRELIEF headquarters in Riyadh on Thursday.

In phone remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Rabia noted that coordination was underway to implement the emergency response plan by the GCC aid coordination center and the concerned bodies of the GCC member states, the members of the Saudi-led coalition, the WHO, the International Medical Corps (IMC) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Meanwhile, WHO raised on Thursday the death toll from the cholera outbreak in Yemen to 222.

In a post on Twitter, the organization said that around 20,000 suspected cases of cholera have been reported in 17 different governorates.

“To date, around 20,000 suspected cases of #cholera have been reported in 17 governorates, including 222 associated deaths. #Yemen,” it said in the post.

The number of registered cases is multiplying every day in the war-torn Arab country and the death toll keeps increasing in an “alarming” way, UNICEF said earlier in a post on Twitter.