Yemen's Health Ministry announced the outbreak on Oct. 6 in Sana'a city, and by Oct. 10 the WHO (World Health Organization) said there were 24 suspected cases. The following day, a WHO official in Yemen said there was "no spread of the disease", Reuters reported.
But Friday, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told a Geneva news briefing that as of Thursday there were 1,410 suspected cholera cases in 10 out of Yemen's 23 governorates - mostly in Taiz, Aden, Lahij, Hudaydah and Sana’a.
Cholera is only one risk in Yemen's war but a rapid advance of the disease would add a new dimension to the humanitarian disaster which UNICEF says has left 7.4 million children in need of medical help and 370,000 at risk of severe acute malnutrition.
WHO said Wednesday that only 47 of the suspected cases had tested positive for cholera and the outbreak had spread beyond the capital to nine other governorates.
Children under 10 accounted for half of the cases with six deaths from cholera and 36 associated deaths from acute watery diarrhea, the WHO said in the Oct. 26 report.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been launching airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to the fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
According to UN estimates, over 10,000 Yemenis, including 4,000 women and children, have lost their lives in the military campaign.
On October 8 alone, Saudi-led warplanes killed over 140 people and injured more than 600 others in an airstrike on a crowded funeral ceremony in Sana’a.