Yemen's deadly cholera outbreak

Yemen's deadly cholera outbreak

Advertisement

Yemen's cholera outbreak is so widespread that just drinking water can lead to death.

. Sanaa, Yemen. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

Nearly 2,000 people have already succumbed to one of the worst recorded outbreaks of cholera in modern history, with over 400,000 having contracted the disease, according to the World Health Organization.

1 / 19

Map

Young men relax in a jacuzzi at a health club.
. Sanaa, YEMEN. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

Young men relax in a jacuzzi at a health club.

A worker cleans a swimming pool at at a health club.
. Sanaa, YEMEN. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

A worker cleans a swimming pool at at a health club.

A view of a treated water basin at a sewage treatment plant.
. Sanaa, Yemen. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

A view of a treated water basin at a sewage treatment plant.

People collect drinking water from a public tap.
. Sanaa, Yemen. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

People collect drinking water from a public tap.

Women carry jerrycans after they filled them up with drinking water from a charity tap.
. Sanaa, YEMEN. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

Women carry jerrycans after they filled them up with drinking water from a charity tap.

A boy pushes a wheelbarrow filled with jerrycans after collecting drinking water from a charity tap.
. Sanaa, YEMEN. Reuters

A boy pushes a wheelbarrow filled with jerrycans after collecting drinking water from a charity tap.

A woman fills a bottle with drinking water at the house of Ahmad al-Sewari, who was infected with cholera.
. Sanaa, YEMEN. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

A woman fills a bottle with drinking water at the house of Ahmad al-Sewari, who was infected with cholera.

Drugs lie on shelves at a cholera treatment centre.
. Sanaa, YEMEN. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

Drugs lie on shelves at a cholera treatment centre.

Artist and activist Thiyazen al-Alawi paints a mural on a wall of a hospital as part of a cholera awareness campaign.
. Sanaa, Yemen. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

Artist and activist Thiyazen al-Alawi paints a mural on a wall of a hospital as part of a cholera awareness campaign.

People sit on a bench as a woman lies on the ground outside a cholera treatment center.
. Sanaa, Yemen. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

People sit on a bench as a woman lies on the ground outside a cholera treatment center.

A man infected with cholera lies on a bed at a cholera treatment center.
. Sanaa, Yemen. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

A man infected with cholera lies on a bed at a cholera treatment center.

A worker sprays pesticides at a sewage treatment plant.
. Sanaa, Yemen. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

A worker sprays pesticides at a sewage treatment plant.

A boy stands in the middle of an insecticide cloud as a public health worker sprays insecticide.
. Sanaa, Yemen. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

A boy stands in the middle of an insecticide cloud as a public health worker sprays insecticide.

A public health worker sprays insecticide.
. Sanaa, Yemen. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

A public health worker sprays insecticide.

A nurse tends to children held by their mothers inside a tent at a cholera treatment center.
. Sanaa, Yemen. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

A nurse tends to children held by their mothers inside a tent at a cholera treatment center.

A woman holds her son who is suspected of being infected with cholera at a cholera treatment center.
. Sanaa, Yemen. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

A woman holds her son who is suspected of being infected with cholera at a cholera treatment center.

Nurses tend to a boy who is suspected of being infected with cholera at a cholera treatment center.
. Sanaa, Yemen. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

Nurses tend to a boy who is suspected of being infected with cholera at a cholera treatment center.

A woman with suspected cholera infection lies on a bed at a cholera treatment center.
. Sanaa, Yemen. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

A woman with suspected cholera infection lies on a bed at a cholera treatment center.

Health workers do paperwork as they receive people with suspected infection of cholera at a cholera treatment center.
. Sanaa, Yemen. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

Health workers do paperwork as they receive people with suspected infection of cholera at a cholera treatment center.

Cholera, a diarrhoeal disease spread by ingestion of food or water tainted with human faeces, can kill within hours if untreated. It has been largely eradicated in developed countries equipped with sanitation systems and water treatment.

But Yemen's devastating civil war, pitting a Saudi-led military coalition against the armed Houthi group, and economic collapse has made it extremely difficult to deal with catastrophes such as cholera and mass hunger.

. Sanaa, YEMEN. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

With stinking green watery filth mingled with trash being a common sight in the capital Sanaa, the government is struggling to control the spread of the disease.

. Sanaa, Yemen. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah
Mechanics fix a turbine on a sewage treatment plant.

Pumps to sanitise the water supply sit idle for lack of fuel, while maintenance agencies tasked with chlorinating aquifers go without salaries and supplies.

Since Yemen's government took control of central bank funds, it no longer pays most civil servants in Houthi-held lands. This means that most of those working in and around Sanaa have not been paid for six months, ruining the lives of hospital and sanitation workers.

Meanwhile, the parched and mountainous country is in danger of running out of water, leaving its 28 million mostly impoverished citizens facing another crisis.

. Sanaa, YEMEN. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

A dearth of clean water has forced many residents to queue up and fill jerry cans from water trucks.

The United Nations estimates that in Yemen a child under the age of five dies every 10 minutes from preventable causes, two million people have fled fighting near their homes and only half of hospitals have staff and supplies to function normally.

. Sanaa, YEMEN. Reuters/Khaled Abdullah
A sink outside a cholera treatment center.