GENEVA (AP) – The U.N. health agency and some major partners have agreed to send 1 million doses of cholera vaccine to Yemen to help stanch a spiraling and increasingly deadly outbreak in the impoverished country, which is already facing war and the risk of famine.
A spokesman for the World Health Organization said Wednesday that 1 million doses for Yemen were approved on June 15 by the International Coordinating Group, which manages vaccine stocks and includes the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance along with WHO. Such a shipment and would amount to about half of the usual world stockpile.
The Who says that in just over two months, a cholera outbreak has taken over 1,100 lives and the caseload is rising, with peak levels unpredictable.