United Nations: 2.2 million suspected cases of cholera recorded in Yemen
English - Wednesday 25 December 2019 الساعة 04:44 pm
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The United Nations announced on Tuesday that it recorded 2.2 million suspected cases of cholera in Yemen from the beginning of the outbreak until mid-November
"The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has provided two diarrhea treatment centers in Al Hodeidah governorate with medicines and other supplies, with support from the government of Japan," the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in a brief statement posted on its office in Yemen, said on Twitter.
"According to the World Health Organization, 2.2 million suspected cases of cholera have been reported in Yemen from the beginning of the outbreak until mid-November," it added.
The World Health Organization announced last October that it had monitored 913 cholera deaths in Yemen, from the beginning of 2019 until the end of last September.
In a report, the United Nations said that "696,537 suspected cholera cases have been detected in Yemen, with 913 deaths from the epidemic, since the beginning of this year until September 29."
"Children under the age of five make up 25.5 percent of all suspected cholera cases," it added.
It stated that "305 directorates out of 333 districts in Yemen, the presence of the epidemic has been reported."
Last August, the organization announced that two thousand deaths from this disease had been recorded since the cholera outbreak began to spread rapidly at the end of April 2017.
In a related development, a recent study conducted by international researchers from several countries revealed the mysterious path of the cholera epidemic in Yemen, which is classified internationally as the largest incidents of cholera epidemic in the modern era.
An international group of researchers from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, France, the United States of America, Yemen and India have cooperated to monitor and track the source of this epidemic through this study, which lasted for 3 full years, and its results were published recently in the journal Nature, which is specialized in scientific research.
According to the study, the researchers analyzed and tracked the cholera epidemic in Yemen, and reached results that enabled them to study the epidemiological development of it, the emergence of the disease, map the paths of transmission and track its development and determine the type of antibiotics that can be used to confront this epidemic, by examining the genetic map and setting the genomic sequence of samples Vibrio cholerae isolated from endemic areas in Yemen.
The results said that all samples collected from Yemen during the time of the outbreak belong to one strain of cholera called T13.
Analysis of the genetic map of this species showed a great difference from the cholera strain that spread in the Middle East during the war on Iraq, while that strain coincided with a strain recently spread in East Africa in both Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda between 2015 and 2016.
Analysis of these data led to the fact that "Yemen cholera" - which contains the ctxB7 gene - started mainly in South Asia, specifically in India from 2006, and then moved in at least three different waves to West Africa in 2008, Haiti in 2010, and East Africa In 2013 and 2014.
The study confirmed that the Yemeni cholera strain responds to polymyxine treatment because of a mutation in its DNA that resulted in a change in the infiltration of amino acids.
The study showed that the researchers examined 116 cases, within the developmental context of a global group containing 1087 isolated samples from the bacteria that cause the seventh epidemic.
The cases included 42 patients from Yemen who contracted infection in 2016 and 2017, including 39 from three main governorates and 3 cases from a refugee camp at the Saudi border, in addition to 73 cases collected from reference studies of some countries whose residents were infected with cholera, and these cases are divided into 6 infected from France, 11 injured from Iraq, 14 injured from South Sudan, 10 from Kenya, 3 from Saudi Arabia and 29 from India.
The researchers succeeded in determining the type of the current strain of cholera in Yemen, noting that it is "one type, and they said that its source is East Africa, which is linked to Yemen through the migratory movements and the continuing trade."
The study said that the poor health conditions in Yemen led to the rapid spread of the epidemic coming from the eastern black continent.
In addition to determining the source of cholera, the researchers succeeded in determining the type of antibiotics that could be used to fight the outbreak of Yemeni cholera, and they said that the cholera strain in Yemen showed resistance to three types of antibiotics: nitrofurantoin, fibrustatic O / 129, and nalidixic acid, while 17 types of Antibiotics in the elimination of bacteria that cause disease, the most prominent of them (Polymyxin B Polymyxin B), a type of antibiotics inexpensive and very effective in fighting bacteria, fungi and meningitis.
Francois Xavier Weil, an epidemiologist at the French Pasteur Institute and the first author of the study, said: "The results provided a reconstruction of the path through which the cholera strain that struck Yemen during the past years has spread."
He added: The study aims to reach "a better understanding of how the causes of cholera spread around the world," stressing that understanding the way bacteria spread will contribute to reducing infections in the future.
"This study was part of a global initiative aimed at establishing a global cholera surveillance system," Francois explained, "in which it is launched based on knowledge of its genetic sequence by isolating its disease outbreak," and involving the World Health Organization, UNICEF, MSF and many other health agencies.
According to "Franco", the results of the study will not contribute at any time to any change in the status of its spread in Yemen, especially in light of the worsening of other health conditions, and the destruction of a significant percentage of health facilities as a result of civil strife there.
The World Health Organization says that 45% of health facilities in Yemen are operating at full capacity, 17% have been completely destroyed, and 38% of them are working partially.
According to the World Health Organization, cholera is one of the acute intestinal infections caused by bacteria known as "cholera vibrio." These bacteria are transmitted through contaminated food or water, and can lead to severe dehydration that causes death if the necessary treatment is not received.
Usually, cholera can be treated using simple measures, including taking dehydration medications, and giving appropriate antibiotics to the disease strain, and despite the ease of treatment, getting it in conflict areas - such as Yemen - remains difficult, which leads to increased death rates from infection the disease.
