The World Health Organization warned on Tuesday, September 29, that renewed fighting in Yemen is pushing its health system toward a breaking point. Hospitals are treating mounting casualties while displacement and crowded shelters increase the risk of infectious disease, the agency said at a United Nations briefing in Geneva.
According to figures from Yemen’s health ministry in Aden cited by WHO, the escalation has caused 4,481 casualties, including 838 deaths, since August 6. The agency said nine health facilities or related assets have been damaged, closed or attacked. Emergency obstetric and newborn services have stopped at two hospitals because staff and operating capacity were diverted to trauma care.
The warning comes after years of conflict had already weakened medical services. WHO said only about 60 percent of health facilities were fully functioning before the latest escalation. Families forced from their homes need maternal and child care, nutrition support, vaccination and mental health services, while shortages of medicines and restricted access make those services harder to deliver.
Disease surveillance adds to the concern. WHO reported more than 22,000 suspected measles cases and 128 associated deaths this year, as well as 7,784 suspected cholera cases with 22 deaths and 9,604 dengue cases with 37 deaths. The agency said crowding and limited clean water and sanitation could accelerate cholera transmission; it did not say the current cholera outbreak began with the latest fighting.
More than 3,600 Yemenis have crossed into Djibouti since September 10, nearly half of them children, WHO said. It has sent 59.3 metric tons of medical supplies to 40 facilities and offices in 10 governorates and deployed more than 20 mobile medical teams. Yet its Aden warehouse has run out of some vital items, including trauma kits and essential medicines.
WHO said it has secured only $2 million of the $9 million needed for its emergency response. The agency and its partners are seeking more funding to sustain treatment, restore access to routine care and strengthen disease surveillance, vaccination and water services. The United Nations migration agency separately gave a lower displacement estimate than WHO, reflecting different sources and reporting periods.
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