A global surge of cholera cases has put one billion people in 43 countries at risk, the World Health Organization (WHO) cautioned this week.
A lack of global supply has prompted the international body which distributes oral cholera vaccines during outbreaks and emergencies to temporarily suspend the standard two-dose regimen.
The official declaration of a cholera outbreak in the Aleppo region of Syria at the weekend, represents “a serious threat to people in Syria”, and the whole Middle East region, said the UN humanitarian relief coordinator for the country on Tuesday.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday a new drive to find ways of revamping the African region’s health systems.
A group of 13 independent UN human rights experts on Thursday called on the UN chief, António Guterres, to “urgently step up efforts” to fulfill a UN pledge to help victims of a nine-year-long cholera epidemic in Haiti that killed over 10,000 citizens.
A campaign has got underway to prevent the spread of a deadly cholera outbreak to Sudan’s populous Khartoum state, home to more than eight million people, UN medics said on Wednesday.
Over a year after cholera broke out in Yemen, killing more than 2,000 people, the disease is back and spreading fast.
Once more, the key port city of Hudaydah — held by the Houthis, and the target of continued air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition to regain control of the city — is facing a deadly outbreak.
To mitigate the risks, the Ministry of Health and the UN launched a week-long cholera oral vaccination campaign to target the most vulnerable last Saturday.
Damage to the civilian infrastructure in the Yemeni port city of Hudaydah could “jeopardize everything” relief operations are trying to do, said the UN humanitarian coordinator for the country on Wednesday.