Ibrahim Ali al-Jadari’s four teenage daughters lie at home on intravenous drips that will soon run out as they, like tens of thousands of other Yemenis, battle a seasonal surge of dengue fever.
Mosquito-borne dengue is the latest challenge facing Yemenis who have endured almost five years of a conflict that has killed thousands, pushed millions to the brink of famine and caused major cholera outbreaks.
“We don’t have a penny to pay for (more) treatment.
Our children are dying on their beds and we can’t do a thing,” Jadari said from his makeshift home of rushes and canvas in the hills of Hajjah district, one of Yemen’s poorest. Jadari’s family was forced from their village by war.
He is unemployed and medicine is not free. Dengue is the world’s fastest-spreading mosquito-borne disease.
It causes flu-like symptoms and a severe form of it can result in internal bleeding. There is no specific treatment and no vaccine available yet although one is being trialled.
Dengue infections around the world have increased dramatically in recent decades and many countries are seeing a surge in cases this year.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) this year named dengue one of the top 10 global public health threats.
Medical staff in Yemen said the disease is thriving among crowded populations of people displaced and weakened by war living in unsanitary conditions.
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