Ministry of Health: Saudi-led coalition causes swine flu outbreaks in Yemen

SANAA, Feb. (YPA) -The Yemeni Ministry of Public Health and Population in Sana’a accused the Saudi-UAE-led coalition of spreading the swine flu virus known as H1N1 and other epidemics through their invasion and destruction of Yemen.

“There have been 590 cases of swine flu or so-called H1N1 in Yemen in recent months, and 121 of them have died,” the Ministry of Public Health and population said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The epidemic continues to spread and expand day after day despite all measures taken by the Ministry of Health to contain the epidemic,” the statement read.

“The impact of the US-backed Saudi-led blockade and aggression on Yemen, the destruction of health facilities and sanitation systems and the intransigent economic measures taken against Yemen have had a very significant impact on the re-emergence of this deadly disease and other epidemics that had disappeared from Yemen in the past decades,” the statement said.

It confirmed that cholera and diphtheria emerged again during the period of aggression due to the devastation of all aspects of life associated with the health sector.

“Swine flu is one of the epidemics that has emerged and spread under the umbrella of the global war that has poured into Yemen, without any UN action to stop it, but these [humanitarian] organisations are merely describing the problems and counting the numbers of deaths and those in need of assistance,” the ministry said.

The Ministry of Health held the states of the Saudi-led aggression and all those who stand in their ranks responsible for the loss of thousands of victims of these diseases that have recently emerged.

“We have the right in the future to prosecute these States and to take all legal action against all of them,” the statement added.

The Ministry called on all international health organisations operating in Yemen, headed by the WHO, UNICEF and others, to take urgent international action to respond to these health conditions and such widespread epidemics.

The ministry further called on the international community to lift the blockade of Yemen, and stop the aggression on Yemen, as this is the only real solution to the problems of Yemen.

E.M