The death and infection of 230 children.. Houthi lies that return polio to Yemen
English - Tuesday 31 January 2023 الساعة 05:21 pm
Sana'a, NewsYemen, exclusive:
Almost 14 years after Yemen was declared free of the polio virus, the epidemic has returned to Sana'a and its neighboring governorates, claiming the lives of dozens of children, amid official inaction and deliberate neglect.
According to sources working in the health sector in Sana'a, who spoke to (Newsyemen), about 230 children died and contracted polio, as cases registered in hospitals (Sana'a, Saada, Al-Bayda, Dhamar, Al-Jawf, Amran, Marib, Al-Hodeidah, Abyan and Al-Dhalea) during the past 10 months.
These sources attributed the reasons for the spread of polio again, to the negligence of the health authorities in Sana'a, and the promotion of rumors and misleading information by the Houthi militia - the Iranian arm in Yemen - in which preventive vaccines are generally considered (external conspiracies), and they harm children, claiming that international organizations which offers these vaccines as humanitarian aid, but targets what it calls (faith identity).
While the Ministry of Health in Sana’a, which is run by the Houthi leader, Taha Al-Mutawakel, is busy organizing rhetorical events with sectarian and sectarian dimensions, the House of Representatives intervened in Sana’a, on Sunday, January 29, 2023, and decided to summon the Minister of Public Health and Population to the next day’s session (to discuss the issue of the spread of Measles, polio, the death of a number of children, and the spread of a number of diseases).
And on Monday, January 30, 2023, the Council repeated the decision to summon the Minister of Health in Sana'a - who was absent from Monday's session - (given the importance of the issue and its relevance to the lives of children).
Parliament's deliberations confirmed a significant spread of a number of diseases and epidemics, and the occurrence of deaths among children, due to the spread of polio and measles, stressing (the need to take into account this issue and investigate the truth about the death of children and their numbers, and hold the negligent accountable).
In December 2021, the last polio vaccination campaign was carried out in Sana’a, targeting three million and 253 thousand and 393 children under the age of five, in 9 governorates, while the last vaccination campaign against the epidemic was carried out by the Ministry of Health in Aden on February 2022, targeting more than 2.2 million children under the age of ten under the slogan (from home to home) covered 12 Yemeni governorates.
In a previous statement, the Director-General of the World Health Organization for the Eastern Mediterranean Region classified Yemen and Somalia among the high-risk countries, as the transmission of various polio viruses continues without interruption, while the World Health Organization indicated that the restrictions imposed on vaccination through home visits prevent without reaching the most vulnerable children.
