The news of the cholera epidemic in Yemen is beyond comprehension. The disease is spreading with unprecedented speed. There are over 600,000 people infected and 2,000 dead - in about six months time.In July, the numbers being reported were a staggering 5,000 new cases a day. Although the overall rate of newly infected has slowed recently, down to around 3,000 cases per day - that is certainly no reason for celebration. This still remains the most explosive cholera epidemic on record.
How does a bacterium that is micrometers long cause such devastation?
Vibrio cholerae naturally exists in two places - water and the human small intestine. The bacteria sets up an infection in someone after they consume water contaminated with Vibrio cholerae. This is more common in areas where sanitation is low and people are forced to resort to drinking the same water that they or others are bathing in. An example of such a situation is shown in the photo..........To Read More....
My Take - Good article, but I fear there's no fixing this from the outside. Yemen is poor and made poorer by those ruling the nation who keep them in this state. War, corruption and elitism is the order of the day in Yemen and any money sent there will probably be absorbed by the ruling class. We're not sitting back and watching it happen so much as there's not much "we" can do to fix it. And I’m not sure who the “we” are. This a common societal paradigm in much of the world. The Middle East is run by tyrants in nations that are in reality medieval tribal societies with modern weapons, communications and transportation. There’s no fixing that. But it is a good article as an argument against the greenies who've attempted to get chlorine removed from various nation's water systems.
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