NPR

How To Stop The World's Worst Cholera Outbreak

There are more than 200,000 cases in a war-ravaged country whose health system is collapsing. We asked specialists what needs to happen to bring the disease under control.
The scene after a mortar attack on the southern city of Taez. / AHMAD AL-BASHA / Getty Images

Yemen is struggling to control a cholera outbreak that the U.N. is calling "the worst ... in the world."

As of June 26, the World Health Organization estimates that there have been nearly 219,000 cases and 1,400 deaths since the start of the outbreak in late April. The outbreak is adding to a humanitarian crisis brought on by a civil war that's lasted more than two years.

WHO has approved use of a vaccine in Yemen, but it works best if given before an outbreak starts. The organization is considering whether provinces neighboring those

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