WHO: 66 people died of diphtheria in Yemen

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday that the number of deaths in Yemen from diphtheria has increased to 66 cases in the past several months, Anadolu news agency reported.

The organisation said in a report that the cases were recorded in 20 out of the 23 governorates and in 163 out of the 333 districts.

The report pointed out that 1,100 cases of infection were recorded in those governorates without specifying the exact duration.

According to the report the disease has mostly spread in the provinces of Ibb in the centre and Hodeidah in the west.

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The outbreak coincides with the outbreak of a cholera epidemic in April 2017, which killed more than 2,200 people with more than one million suspected cases, according to previous WHO reports.

For nearly three years Yemen has witnessed a violent war between government forces loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and Houthi rebels.

The war has led to difficult humanitarian and health conditions and the closure of a large number of health facilities in one of the poorest countries in the world.