Save the Children: Cholera infects one Yemeni kid every minute

Save the Children has voiced alarm over the raging spread of the cholera epidemic in war-torn Yemen, saying one child becomes infected every minute.

 

Save the Children has voiced alarm over the raging spread of the cholera epidemic in war-torn Yemen, saying one child becomes infected every minute.

Cholera has killed more than 900 people and infected more than 124,000 others since late April, according to the United Nations children agency, UNICEF.

On Wednesday, Save the Children said the rate with which the Yemenis are catching the disease has tripled in just two weeks, warning that the number of the infected could rise as high as 300,000.

The disease brings along severe diarrhea, which can kill those afflicted within hours if not treated properly. Malnourished children, who number more than two million in Yemen, are especially susceptible.

Grant Pritchard, Save the Children’s representative in Yemen, said, “It’s time for the world to take action before thousands of Yemeni boys and girls perish from an entirely preventable disease.”