Health Officials Warn Falling Case Counts May Hide a Worsening Crisis in Besieged Taiz
Health officials warn that falling numbers of recorded infections in Taiz, a city in Yemen, may conceal a worsening disease crisis in the area, which has been under siege for more than a month. A siege is an encirclement that blocks supplies from getting in, and the blockade has left the city's health system under strain.
According to figures obtained by Al Jazeera from the Epidemiological Surveillance Department at Taiz's Public Health and Population Office, 5,642 cases were recorded across three disease categories in the latest four-week reporting period. Of those, 5,228 were acute watery diarrhoea and 232 were suspected dengue fever. More than 1,400 cases of acute diarrhoea and suspected cholera were reported in Taiz in a single week.
The human cost has been drawn into focus by a video. A short clip widely circulated on social media on November 10 showed a woman holding the body of an infant wrapped in a white shroud. The infant was identified as Gaza Ali Abdulmughni al-Shaqab, who fell ill and died after her family was unable to get emergency medical care. The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms said the vehicle carrying the baby to hospital was attacked by Houthi forces while travelling through mountain roads.
The Houthis, an armed movement, have denied responsibility for road closures around Taiz and have blamed Yemeni government forces instead.
The siege intensified in early October, when the Houthis advanced around the city and cut off the last major supply route into government-held areas. The Houthis had earlier captured substantial territory along Yemen's Red Sea coast in September before making further advances in Taiz governorate, the province that contains the city.
Yemen's government has accused the Houthis of tightening the siege on nearly two million people in Taiz for more than a month. It says the blockade prevents entry of food, safe drinking water, medicines and fuel. On October 29, Human Rights Watch said the Houthi siege on civilians in Taiz may amount to the war crime of using starvation as a method of warfare.
Humanitarian agencies have described the effects in detail. On October 14, the World Food Programme, the United Nations food agency, said it had been unable to reach more than 600,000 people in Taiz who depend on humanitarian assistance. The agency said most districts in the city were classified as facing emergency levels of hunger.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has warned that health services in Taiz are failing because of a shortage of supplies. Nearly 250,000 people in the city have lost access to essential healthcare, including more than 186,000 children younger than five. Twelve hospitals in Taiz are at risk of closing or have had to reduce services because of a lack of fuel and critical supplies.
