One week ago in a joint statement from UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake and WHO Director-General Margaret Chan when  the Yemen cholera outbreak topped 200,000 cases, it was stated, “We are now facing the worst cholera outbreak in the world.”

About a week later, World Health Organization Representative in Yemen,  Dr Nevio Zagaria said, “The geographical spread of cholera continues to increase. The situation is extremely serious.”

Since April 27, 252,816 suspected cholera cases and 1560 associated deaths have been reported in 21 governorates in Yemen through July 1.

Last week, three UNICEF charter planes have delivered 36 tons of lifesaving medical and water purification supplies to Yemen to scale up efforts to combat the world’s worst cholera outbreak.

The supplies included, 750,000 sachets of Oral Rehydration Salt (ORS) enough to treat 10,000 people, 10.5 million water purification tablets and other sanitation items.

“We are in a race against time. Our teams are working with partners not only to provide treatment to the sick and raise awareness among communities, but also to rapidly replenish and distribute supplies and medicines”, said Dr Sherin Varkey, UNICEF Deputy Representative in Yemen. “More airlifts of critical supplies will continue in the coming days”.

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