Suspected cholera cases in Yemen have tripled over the past three weeks, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned, as people flee their homes amid renewed fighting and seek shelter in displacement camps with poor sanitation.
According to a WHO report released on Tuesday, escalating fighting has displaced more than 200,000 people, driving suspected cases from 217 in the week of September 6-12 to 647 in the week of September 27-October 3.
"Families fleeing conflict now face another threat from diseases that are preventable and treatable," said Annette Heinzelmann, the UN agency's emergency director for the region.
"Without urgent funding and unimpeded access to clean water, vaccines and essential health services, outbreaks can spread rapidly through already vulnerable communities."
WHO said Yemen has recorded 8,034 suspected cholera cases and 27 deaths this year, with a quarter of the suspected cases occurring in the past four weeks. Five provinces hosting large numbers of displaced people in the southwest — Abyan, Lahij, al-Dhalea, Taiz and Aden — account for 92 percent of reported cases. The outbreak has also spread to remote camps in Hadramout in eastern Yemen, where health teams face particular difficulty reaching people.
Cholera is an acute intestinal infection that spreads through food and water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, which is often faecal in origin. It causes severe diarrhoea, vomiting and muscle cramps. Without treatment with oral rehydration or antibiotics for more severe cases, it can be fatal.
Cholera has flared and subsided over the years as the conflict in Yemen has dragged on. In 2024, WHO warned the country was facing the "highest burden" of the global cholera outbreak. In 2017, a wave of the disease infected hundreds of thousands of people and killed at least 2,000.
Yemen has long endured one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, and conditions have deteriorated further since fighting resumed between the Houthis — an armed group known as Ansar Allah (Arabic for "Supporters of God") — and Yemen's internationally recognised government.
WHO, headquartered in Geneva, said it has so far secured only $3.78 million of the $31 million needed for a 90-day emergency response in Yemen. The funding is intended to expand disease surveillance in displacement camps, deploy rapid response teams, scale up cholera treatment and improve infection prevention at health facilities and cholera treatment points.
