WHO starts its first Cholera vaccine campaign in Yemen

The first vaccine campaign against cholera in Yemen has been started by the World Health Organization (WHO), a year and a half after an epidemic was triggered by war and a health and sanitation crisis. There have since been more than one million suspected cases of cholera in Yemen, and 2,275 recorded deaths, the WHO says.

This disease that is spread by faeces in sewage contaminating water or food, is to be treated through an oral vaccination campaign, which began in four districts in Aden on Sunday targeting 350,000 people.

Before this, in July 2017, the International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision - which manages a global stockpile - earmarked one million cholera vaccines for Yemen. But the WHO and local authorities together had to scrap a vaccination plan on logistical and technical grounds.

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