Local Editor
At least 514 people in Yemen are believed to have been infected with diphtheria, with the disease killing 48 of them since the outbreak began in mid-August, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
Yemen, one of the Arab world's poorest countries, is embroiled in a proxy war between the Houthi revolutionary movement and a U.S.-backed military coalition headed by Saudi Arabia.
The United Nations calls Yemen the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with 8 million people on the brink of famine and a failing health system.
WHO representative Dr. Nevio Zagaria warned that the spread of diphtheria was significantly more dangerous than the already widespread cholera because of its higher fatality rate.
Almost 100 districts in Yemen have reported at least one diphtheria case with a heavy concentration in the province of Ibb, which reported approximately 50 per cent of the total infections across the country.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
