MSF Warns of Possible Malaria Outbreak in Yemen

Doctors without Borders charity group, known in its French name as Médecins Sans Frontières [MSF] warned Sunday of an increased risk of malaria outbreak in Yemen, coinciding with the rainy season.

“The rainy season has started and increases the risk of malaria,” MSF said in tweets of its office in Yemen on the occasion of the World Malaria Day.

“While Yemen is currently preparing for a possible spread of Covid-19, the rest of the health system needs to be kept running, or else we can expect a rise in deaths from other diseases such as malaria,” MSF added.

The group also considered that “Treating people with #malaria puts considerable strains on an already overwhelmed health system and threatening the lives of many Yemenis, particularly children and pregnant women.”

The organization indicated that since November 2019, its teams have treated 1,576 people with Malaria in al-Hudaydah governorate most of them in Ad-Dahi Rural Hospital supported by MSF.

In 2019, the group has treated 13,093 malaria cases in some Yemeni governorates, which include al-Hudaydah, Hajjah, Ibb, Taiz and Amran.

For weeks, several Yemeni governorates have been experiencing heavy rains, causing dozens of deaths and injuries, in addition to large losses in public and private property.

As of Sunday morning, Yemen had reported only one case of coronavirus in the Hadramout governorate, in the east of the country, and local authorities had announced its recovery.