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Measles Deaths Double in Seven Months in Yemen, Says UN

Yemen has witnessed a surge of measles cases in the past seven months. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Yemen has witnessed a surge of measles cases in the past seven months. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Measles Deaths Double in Seven Months in Yemen, Says UN

Yemen has witnessed a surge of measles cases in the past seven months. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Yemen has witnessed a surge of measles cases in the past seven months. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Yemen has witnessed a surge of measles cases in the past seven months, leading to more than 400 deaths and roughly 34,000 infections, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO is concerned over increasing cases of measles and rubella among children in Yemen.

Since the beginning of the year and until the end of July, the number of suspected cases of measles and rubella in Yemen has reached almost 34,300 and 413 deaths, compared to 27,000 cases and 220 associated deaths in 2022.

The WHO is working with the Yemeni Ministry of Public Health and Population (MoPHP) and partners to increase support for routine vaccination interventions.

The WHO also continues to work within the National Health Framework to provide technical and financial support to improve coverage among children.

A measles-rubella vaccination campaign, targeting 1.2 million children under the age of five, is scheduled to be implemented in September.

In 2022, the WHO supported the protection of around 913,000 children from measles and rubella.

As of July, the MoPHP, with the support of the WHO and other partners, reached a coverage rate of around 65 percent of all children for both shots of measles and rubella (MR1 and MR2).

"Ideally, the outbreak response vaccination campaign should target at least all children under the age of ten to be comprehensive and effective; however, the current funding gap has eroded support and limited the target to children under five years of age," said Dr. Arturo Pesigan, WHO Representative in Yemen.

According to the WHO-UNICEF National Immunization Coverage Estimate for 2022, 27 percent of children under one year of age in Yemen are unvaccinated for measles and rubella and have not met the minimal set of vaccines for full protection.

Several fatal epidemic diseases have started spreading in Yemen since the coup by the Iran-backed Houthi militias against the legitimate government in 2015.

Yemen's Expanded Program on Immunization started in 1974 and aims to reduce the rates of maternal and neonatal tetanus, ensure full immunization of children under one year of age, and extend all new vaccines and preventative health interventions to children in all districts, reducing the number of deaths associated with vaccine-preventable diseases.

Various childhood disease vaccines have been introduced since then, and currently, immunization against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, poliomyelitis, measles, pneumococcal, hepatitis B, diarrhea, pneumonia, and tuberculosis is available to every child.

Similarly, a surveillance system was established to report, investigate, and respond to any outbreak related to vaccine-preventable diseases in Yemen's Expanded Program on Immunization.

The WHO leads global efforts to expand universal health coverage, direct and coordinate the world's responses to health emergencies, and connect nations, partners, and people to promote health, and keep the world safe.

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Israel-Hezbollah Ceasefire Takes Effect

A view of Beirut, after a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed group Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday after US President Joe Biden said both sides accepted an agreement brokered by the United States and France, as seen from Hazmieh, Lebanon November 27, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A view of Beirut, after a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed group Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday after US President Joe Biden said both sides accepted an agreement brokered by the United States and France, as seen from Hazmieh, Lebanon November 27, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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Israel-Hezbollah Ceasefire Takes Effect

A view of Beirut, after a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed group Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday after US President Joe Biden said both sides accepted an agreement brokered by the United States and France, as seen from Hazmieh, Lebanon November 27, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A view of Beirut, after a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed group Hezbollah took effect on Wednesday after US President Joe Biden said both sides accepted an agreement brokered by the United States and France, as seen from Hazmieh, Lebanon November 27, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

A ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed group Hezbollah came into effect on Wednesday after both sides accepted an agreement brokered by the US and France, a rare victory for diplomacy in a region traumatised by two devastating wars for over a year.
Lebanon's army, which is tasked with helping make sure the ceasefire holds, said in a statement on Wednesday it was preparing to deploy to the south of the country.
The military also asked that residents of border villages delay returning home until the Israeli military, which has waged war against Hezbollah on several occasions and pushed around six km (4 miles) into Lebanese territory, withdraws.
The agreement, which promises to end a conflict across the Israeli-Lebanese border that has killed thousands of people since it was ignited by the Gaza war last year, is a major achievement for the US in the waning days of President Joe Biden's administration.
Bursts of gunfire could be heard across Lebanon's capital Beirut after the ceasefire took effect at 0200 GMT. It was not immediately clear if the shooting was celebratory, as gunfire had also been used to alert residents who may have missed evacuation warnings issued by Israel's military.
Later, cars and vans piled high with mattresses, suitcases and even furniture streamed through the southern port city of Tyre, which was heavily bombed in the final days before the ceasefire, heading further south.
Some cars waved Lebanese flags, others honked, and one woman could be seen flashing the victory sign with her fingers.
Many of the villages the people were likely returning to have been destroyed. But displaced families renting out alternative housing have been under financial pressure and hoped to having avoid paying another month of rent, some of them told Reuters.
Some displaced people said they were still nervous about returning.
Hussam Arrout, a father of four who said he was displaced from Beirut's southern suburbs and was originally from the southern border village of Mays al-Jabal, said he was itching to get to his ancestral home.
"The Israelis haven't withdrawn in full, they're still on the edge. So we decided to wait until the army announces that we can go in. Then we'll turn the cars on immediately and go to the village," he said.
'PERMANENT CESSATION'
Biden spoke at the White House on Tuesday shortly after Israel's security cabinet approved the agreement in a 10-1 vote. He said he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and that fighting would end at 4 a.m. local time (0200 GMT).
"This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities," Biden said. "What is left of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations will not be allowed to threaten the security of Israel again."
Israel will gradually withdraw its forces over 60 days as Lebanon's army takes control of territory near its border with Israel to ensure that Hezbollah does not rebuild its infrastructure there, Biden said.
"Civilians on both sides will soon be able to safely return to their communities," he said.
Hezbollah has not formally commented on the ceasefire but senior official Hassan Fadlallah told Lebanon's Al Jadeed TV that while it supported the extension of the Lebanese state’s authority, the group would emerge from the war stronger.
"Thousands will join the resistance ... Disarming the resistance was an Israeli proposal that fell through," said Fadlallah, who is also a member of Lebanon's parliament.
Iran, which backs Hezbollah, the Palestinian group Hamas as well as the Houthi rebels that have attacked Israel from Yemen, said it welcomed the ceasefire.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on social-media platform X the deal was “the culmination of efforts undertaken for many months with the Israeli and Lebanese authorities, in close collaboration with the United States.”
Lebanon's Mikati issued a statement welcoming the deal. Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said the Lebanese army would have at least 5,000 troops deployed in southern Lebanon as Israeli troops withdrew.
Netanyahu said he was ready to implement a ceasefire but would respond forcefully to any violation by Hezbollah.
He said the ceasefire would allow Israel to focus on the threat from Iran, give the army an opportunity to rest and replenish supplies, and isolate Hamas, the Islamist militant group that triggered war in the region when it attacked Israel from Gaza last year.
'SET IT BACK DECADES'
"In full coordination with the United States, we retain complete military freedom of action. Should Hezbollah violate the agreement or attempt to rearm, we will strike decisively," Netanyahu said.
Hezbollah, which is allied to Hamas, was considerably weaker than it had been at the start of the conflict, he added.
"We have set it back decades, eliminated ... its top leaders, destroyed most of its rockets and missiles, neutralized thousands of fighters, and obliterated years of terror infrastructure near our border," he said.
A senior US official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said the US and France would join a mechanism with the UNIFIL peacekeeping force that would work with Lebanon's army to deter potential violations of the ceasefire. US combat forces would not be deployed, the official said.
In the hours leading up to the ceasefire, hostilities raged as Israel ramped up its campaign of airstrikes in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon, with health authorities reporting at least 18 killed.
The Israeli military said it struck "components of Hezbollah's financial management and systems" including a money-exchange office. Hezbollah also kept up rocket fire into Israel in the final hours.