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UN announces cholera outbreak in Yemen

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Cholera bacteria – iStock
Cholera bacteria – iStock

The United Nations has decried an outbreak of cholera in war-torn Yemen, saying it posed an increased health risk to Yemenis, especially children, as the nation's health system crumbles.

A fast killer

UNICEF Representative in Yemen Julien Harneis says Friday that the epidemic, confirmed a day earlier by Yemeni health authorities, "adds to the misery" in the country that it was fighting to alleviate.

It says health authorities announced that cholera was confirmed in the capital, Sanaa, while other cases were suspected in the southwestern city of Taiz. UNICEF is working to establish the exact scale of the outbreak, it says, which if not treated, can kill up to 15 percent of people affected in just a few hours.

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