Local Editor

Thousands of people have been diagnosed with dengue fever in southern Yemen, international organizations and health officials said on Thursday as the US-led Saudi aggression continues in the impoverished country.

The top health ministry official in the southern port city of Aden, Al-Khadr Al-Aswar, told The Associated Press that at least 5,000 people have been diagnosed with the mosquito-borne virus. He said that mountains of uncollected garbage, sewage and heat have contributed to the spread of the disease.

The World Health Organization [WHO] said recently last week that at least 3,000 suspected cases have been reported since March in several provinces, including Aden. It said that three people died from the disease.

The last major outbreak, with 1,500 confirmed cases, was in 2011 in the western Hodeida governorate, the WHO said.

A Saudi-led coalition backed by the United States began carrying out airstrikes against Yemen in late March.

The US-led Saudi aggression has killed more than 2,000 civilians, displaced more than a million and led to severe shortages of food, water, fuel and electricity. The lack of fuel has put garbage trucks out of service, and the mounds of uncollected trash incubate mosquitoes that carry the disease.