6 yıl önce

Diphtheria threatens people of war-ravaged Yemen

Having already been hit by cholera, a large number of people in war-torn Yemen now face the threat of diphtheria as the delivery of medical supplies suffered delays due to blockades on sea and land routes over the past few weeks.

AFP

Yemeni children suffering from diphtheria receive treatment at a hospital in the capital Sanaa on November 22, 2017.

Already facing the disease cholera, which has claimed over 2000 lives in civil war-hit Yemen, a large number of its people now brace for another health threat - diphtheria.

Doctors of have issued alarm following delays in the arrival of immunisation doses for diphtheria which has left at least 20 people dead and infected 120 more across the country.

The Saudi-led military coalition shut down Yemen's sea and air ports as well as borders on November 6 in response to a missile attack by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels near Riyadh.

Yemen is already battling one of the world's worst outbreaks of cholera, with nearly one million people infected. Some 2,200 people have died so far.

TRT World's Kim Vinell reports.