UN officials have warned that the number of cases could double every two weeks if left unchecked. Yemen's government has announced a state of emergency in the capital, saying it cannot keep up with the outbreak.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
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The World Health Organization announced on Thursday a turn for the worse in Yemen's devastating cholera outbreak.
"More than 101,800 suspected cholera cases and 789 associated deaths have been reported in 19 governorates (in Yemen)," the WHO said in a tweet.
Geert Caapelaere, UNICEF's Middle East director, told AP news agency earlier this month that cholera cases could double every two weeks if more aid fails to reach affected areas.
In May, the Yemeni government announced a state of emergency in the capital Sanaa, saying that the spread of cholera outpaced the ability for its public health system to respond to the outbreak.
Yemen's public health infrastructure has nearly collapsed after more than two years of conflict between Iran-aligned Houthi rebels and a Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen's internationally-recognized government.
Yemen: Girl recovers from malnutrition
In war-torn Yemen, 18-year-old Saida suffered from malnutrition for years. These photos document her slow recovery.
Image: Reuters/K. Abdullah
Alarming evidence of misery in Yemen
This image of 18-year-old Saida Ahmad Baghili, sitting on her bed at Al-Thawra in the Red Sea Port city of Hodeida shows her malnourished, emaciated body. It has come to stand for the worsening humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Image: Reuters/A. Zeyad
Saida smiles - after weeks of treatment
Saida was transferred to a hospital in the capital, Sanaa. After weeks of hospital care, she can at least smile, though she can still barely speak and continues to find eating difficult at times. Her father is still worried: "She doesn't eat anything except liquid medical food. She used to drink juice and milk with bananas but now she can't. We don't know when she'll recover."
Image: Reuters/A. Zeyad
A lifelong condition
Doctors believe her condition has damaged her throat. When her family first brought Saida to a hospital, she could barely keep her eyes open or stand. "We admitted Saida to find out the cause of her inability to eat," her doctor said. "Her health issue remains chronic and her bones remain fragile due to stunted growth. In all likelihood, they will never return to normal."
Image: Reuters/A. Zeyad
Finally gaining weight
Her father, Ahmed, who is staying nearby to be with his daughter, said his daughter's weight has reached 16 kilograms (35 pounds), five kilos more than when she was first admitted to hospital. He said Saida's situation was alarming before the war, which began in March 2015. Yemen's crisis including widespread hunger was brought on by decades of poverty and internal strife.
Image: Reuters/K. Abdullah
Food insecurity
About half of Yemen's 28 million people are "food insecure," according to the United Nations, and 7 million of them do not now where they will get their next meal. The US-based Famine Early Warning Systems Network, run by the US Agency for International Development, estimated that a quarter of all Yemenis are probably in a food security "emergency" - one stage before "catastrophe" or famine.
Image: Reuters/K. Abdullah
Saida out of the hospital
The war has pushed the Arab world's poorest nation to the brink of famine and displaced over three million people. Areas worst affected by the conflict are parts of Taiz province and southern coastal areas of the Hodeida province, where Saida is from.
Image: Reuters/K. Abdullah
One reason for undersupply
Restrictions imposed on the entry of ships after the start of the war in Yemen had raised insurance premiums and cut the number of vessels entering the port by more than half. About a million tons of food supplies entered through Hodeida in 2015, a third as much as in 2014.
Image: Reuters/F. Al Nassar
Yemeni women call attention to disaster
Yemeni women are holding banners depicting suffering, malnourished children. They protest against a UN roadmap for the Yemen conflict, which is calling for naming a new vice president after the withdrawal of the Houthi rebels from Sanaa. Since the beginning of the war, at least 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen.
Image: picture alliance/Yahya Arhab/E
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'Crisis is here'
The UN has warned of a humanitarian disaster, with more than half of the population having "no access to health care" and roughly a quarter of Yemen's people on the brink of famine.
Jamie McGoldrick, the UN's humanitarian chief in Yemen, said a "triple-threat of crises" has made it extremely difficult for aid organization
"Today in Yemen, if you do not die of conflict and hunger, you risk being killed by cholera. We have seen the catastrophic consequences when cholera spreads unchecked, and as an international community, we cannot allow this to happen," McGoldrick said.
Cholera, a waterborne bacterial infection, can be treated. However, if left untreated, it can kill within hours. Some 7.6 million people live in cholera-threatened areas, according to the WHO.
Nearly 10,000 people have been killed since the conflict erupted in 2014, when Houthi rebels launched a campaign to capture the capital. In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition launched a deadly aerial campaign against the rebels, one that has been widely criticized by human rights groups for its high civilian death toll.
