Via ReliefWeb, a report from Save the Children: At least 78 children died of dengue related illness in Yemen. Excerpt:
Save the Children warns of an epidemic, as 52,000 suspected cases are recorded in the country.
Seventy-eight children under 16 have already died in the outbreak of Dengue related illness in Yemen[i], with more than 52,000 suspected cases being recorded across the country. Save the Children warned this could signal the start of an epidemic.
Heavy rainfall, coupled with the ongoing conflict, is disrupting clean water supplies. Because of the disruptions, people use water basins to collect rainwater and these uncovered water sources combined with the rain have contributed to the spread of mosquitoes in the affected areas, resulting in an upsurge in suspected dengue cases.
If measures are not urgently put in place to strengthen the health care system so that cases can be detected early, the death total which reached 192 people by the end of 2019, could increase sharply. Cases have been recorded in almost all governorates in Yemen with the most affected being Hodeidah and Aden which recorded more than 60% of the deaths in the country.
Save the Children Hodeidah Field Manager Mariam Aldogani, herself recovering from dengue fever, said:
“Hodeidah has the second highest death rate in the country with 62 adult and children deaths in 2019. We have never seen anything like this before. More than 40 of our staff including their families have been affected by the fever. We are getting reports of deaths on a daily basis in remote areas of the governorate. Some of our health facilities are working 24 hours a day and last week one of our facilities recorded 30 cases in one day, most of which were children.
“The economic situation in the country has not made it any better for people. Parents cannot afford to bring their children to the hospital or to buy the medication. Hospitals are full, and some patients are kept in hospitals having to lay on the floor because of a bed shortage. It’s really bad. Children as young as eight months have not been spared by the dengue fever. In some of the hospitals all you can hear are children crying in pain. We are currently supporting 48 health facilities in Hodeidah which recorded more than 6000 dengue fever suspected cases in 2019.”
Save the Children's health centres have been receiving many cases of children suffering from dengue, and its teams on the ground are diagnosing and treating patients whilst referring the most severe cases.
