UNIPATH STAFF
Medical aid from several countries is credited with improving the health of Yemenis suffering from diseases such as cholera.
As part of a Turkish aid campaign, Yemen received a medical shipment worth $4.4 million in July 2017. The ship carried 47 tons of medicine and 70 tons of medical equipment, in addition to two fully equipped mobile hospitals.
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aid delivered 76 tons of medical supplies to Yemen by overland convoy in the summer of 2017.
The United Arab Emirates Red Crescent, in cooperation with the United Nations, recently spent
$10 million to battle a Yemeni
cholera outbreak.
The Turkish donation included devices to measure water pollution, chemicals to disinfect water and food, and saline, antibiotics, disinfectants, vitamins and surgical gloves, according to The Daily Sabah. The Anadolu Agency reported that the shipment also included 10,000 tons of flour and 5,000 tons of pasta, baby biscuits, cholera medicine and wheelchairs.
Turkey’s aid to Yemen — part of a larger campaign to help nearby East African countries cope with acute drought — aims to forestall “a major humanitarian crisis,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote in a July 2017 tweet.
Limited clean water and food in Yemen sparked a cholera epidemic that killed more than 1,500 people — nearly 400 of whom were children. From May to June 2017, doctors diagnosed more than 200,000 cases of the disease, reporting about 5,000 new cases each day.
By November 2017, the World Health Organization noted a decline in new cases of the disease, a tribute to the medical aid that had flooded the country.
Immersed in civil war since 2014, when Houthi rebels overran much of the country, Yemen is home to 21 million people in need of humanitarian aid and 2 million children suffering from malnutrition. A shortage of medical supplies has exacerbated the situation.