Cholera cases in Yemen pass 100,000: WHO

The number of suspected choleracases in war-torn Yemen has risen to more than 100,000, the World Health Organization saidon Thursday.

The rapid spread of the disease through 19 of Yemen's 23governorates highlighted a humanitarian catastrophe in Yemenafter two years of civil war that has disabled most health carefacilities, according to the U.N. humanitarian office.

"To date, 101,820 suspected cholera cases and 789 deathshave been reported in 19 governorates," WHO spokesman TarikJasarevic told Reuters.

• State of emergency in Yemen after cholera outbreak

The WHO has warned that the number of cases could hit300,000, but the daily number of new ones declined slightly inthe week to June 5 to 3,432, compared with 3,651 in the previousseven-day period.

"Yemen is in the grip of a severe cholera epidemic of anunprecedented scale," the U.N. humanitarian office said in areport published on Wednesday.

"Malnourished children and women, people living with otherchronic health conditions and households that do not have enoughto eat are now at greater risk of death as they face the 'triplethreat' of conflict, famine and cholera," it said.

The war has left 19 million of its 28 million people needinghumanitarian aid and many of them on the verge of famine. Thecholera outbreak is the second wave of an epidemic that began inOctober, spread until December and then dwindled but was neverbrought fully under control.

Aid charity Oxfam called for a "cholera ceasefire" to allowhealth workers to halt the spread of the disease, adding thatthe published numbers were probably an underestimate.

"Yemen is on the edge of an abyss. Lives hang in thebalance," Oxfam's Yemen Country Director Sajjad Mohammed Sajidsaid in a statement. "Cholera is simple to treat and prevent butwhile the fighting continues the task is made doubly difficult."

Cholera is caused by ingesting bacteria from water or foodcontaminated with faeces. It usually manifests itself withsudden acute diarrhoea and can kill within hours, althoughthree-quarters of infected people show no symptoms.

The short incubation period means outbreaks can spreadquickly, especially in places without safe water or sanitation.

"Health and sanitation workers have not been paid for overeight months, only 30 per cent of required medical supplies arebeing imported into the country, garbage collection in thecities is irregular, and more than eight million people lackaccess to safe drinking water and proper sanitation," the U.N. report added.