Outside the Al-Sadaqa hospital in the Yemeni coastal city of Aden stands an isolation tent for cholera patients. Those who come and go have their shoes disinfected and the staff wear protective clothing. They want to stop the painful and dangerous cholera from spreading at all costs.
In one of the beds inside the tent lies Khaled, 2.5 years old.
– My son Khaled got sick yesterday. He had both vomiting and diarrhea and since then he has no strength left. He just lies here and worries. I am very worried, says father Ahmed Saida to TV4 Nyheterna.
The family lives on the outskirts of Aden and the children often drink tap water instead of bottled water. Now everything points to the cholera infection spreading to their area.
– Yesterday Khalid fell ill and today his cousin who also lives in the same building fell ill, says Ahmed Saida.
The infection is recurrent
Despite the fact that cholera is an infection that can be eliminated, cholera waves return to Yemen. The country is already in the midst of a humanitarian disaster due to the nine-year war and cholera is difficult to contain. Sometimes it can be isolated to certain areas, but if it spreads across the country, the healthcare system finds it difficult to receive all the patients.
Cholera usually spreads fastest in the coming hot and humid summer months. Like a fire in a dry field, the Yemenis describe it.
The last wave, which started in 2016 and continued for several years. infected over 2.5 million people and thousands of people died.
Epidemiologist Saleh Dobahe, whom TV4 Nyheterna meets in the isolation tent, has seen epidemics come and go for decades.
– Considering that the infection comes from several parts of the country, it will be difficult to isolate it. I am afraid that we are at the beginning of one of the worst cholera epidemics, he says.
He appeals for more help from outside so that the healthcare system does not collapse. A lot of energy already goes to war-damaged and malnourished children.
– They also need to be protected from cholera. Their immune system cannot cope with a powerful infection, says Saleh Dobahe.