UNITED NATIONS, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) are taking forceful measures to address cholera outbreak in Yemen, a UN spokesperson said Friday.
UNICEF, WHO, and their partners have reached nearly 3.5 million people across the country by disinfecting water tanker filling stations, chlorinating drinking water, restoring water treatment plants, rehabilitating water supply systems, and providing household water treatments and distributing hygiene kits, said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric at a daily news briefing.
"The World Health Organization and UNICEF are honing in on areas reporting the highest number of cases to stop the disease from spreading further," said Dujarric.
There have been nearly 102,000 suspected cholera cases in Yemen, half of them in children, said the spokesman, citing the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Yemen's heath system has been nearly destroyed after more than two years of intense conflict, with fewer than half of the country's health centers being fully functional.
Medical supplies are entering the country at one third the rate they were before March 2015, and heath and sanitation workers have not been paid in more than eight months, said Dujarric.
The Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, has appealed for international support and increased funding to stem the outbreak.
