Scientists discover "the worst cholera epidemic in history" – Al Manar Canal – Lebanon



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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A cholera outbreak in Yemen, the worst in history, has probably come from East Africa, a team of scientists said.

Researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the Pasteur Institute in France have discovered, through genetic sequencing techniques, that the cholera strain that had spread to Yemen had appeared in East Africa and transported migrants to Yemen. So that it can be better targeted.

Since 2016, the epidemic has affected 1 million people and caused 2,770 deaths.

Some 16 million Yemenis do not have access to clean water or sanitation facilities and 10 million people do not know where their next meal will come from: cholera can come from people who do not have access to clean water. food or water contaminated with cholera. In severe cases, the infected epidemic can be killed in a matter of hours if it is not treated.

Yemen has been affected by two cholera outbreaks since the beginning of the attack, according to the World Health Organization.

The first wave occurred between October 2016 and April 26, 2017; 25,800 suspected cases and 129 deaths were reported.

The second wave began on April 27, 2017, resulting in 1,336 million cases and 2,641 deaths in November.

The researchers used 42 samples of cholera cases in Yemen to reach the results of the study.

Samples of infected people in Yemen, others in a Yemeni refugee center on the border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and 74 other cases of cholera in South Asia, the Middle East, in East and Central Africa and compared to samples from other parts of the world, the cholera strain causing the outbreak of Yemen is linked to a strain that appeared in 2012 in Southeast Asia and then spread all over the world.

The strain has not been transmitted directly from South Asia or the Middle East, but this strain of cholera has spread and spread in East Africa. between 2013 and 2014 before appearing in Yemen in 2016.

Source: The bbc

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