Coronavirus: Yemen facing a crisis in the making?

So let me be clear that there are barely any confirmed coronavirus cases in Yemen. Per Worldometer, there are only 10 cases in the country. Yet, let's remember that this is a country that is in the middle of a civil war that involves Saudi Arabia/Iran and has resulted in a humanitarian crisis, which might facilitate both the spread and death rate due to this virus. The first case of the virus popped up on Friday, April 10th. Per BBC:

News of the first Covid-19 case came a day after the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen began a ceasefire, saying it wanted to help stop coronavirus spread and support UN peace efforts.

Yemen's national emergency committee said on Friday that the patient was a 60-year-old man in the southern oil-producing region of Hadramawt.



Some 23 days later, there are only 10 confirmed cases. Al Jazeera (May 2) reports:

Yemen has reported three new coronavirus cases, two in the city of Aden and one in Taiz province, the national emergency coronavirus committee has said, bringing the total number of infections to 10 with two deaths.

. . . The virus has been diagnosed in three provinces in the vulnerable country which has been mired in conflict for more than five years.

The new case in Taiz had been in contact with the southwestern province's first infection which was announced on Friday, the emergency coronavirus committee said in a Twitter post on Saturday.

Here's a quote I wrote when I posted about Iran (I do need to re-look at the situation in Iran and hope to eventually post an update on the situation in that country):

And just a random thought: I'm not sure any other country has announced that there were cases of the coronavirus and then a couple hours later the individuals were stated to have died. [The situation in Iran was that cases were announced and then later the individuals were said to have died.] One has to wonder how long the individuals were sick before finally coming to see the doctor. Honestly, to have died so quickly, I'd bet they went to the hospital over the weekend and were probably infectious a week or so prior to that. That's just me speculating. None of the articles I've read provide any details on this part of the story.

I say that potentially also applies to Yemen. Obviously, the world is more aware of what is going on and countries know they have to react; however . . . Yemen doesn't have the testing capacity and their medical system isn't that great. And can Yemen really properly do contact tracing? There isn't much tourism going on in Yemen so how did these cases pop up across three provinces? I think one possibility is that they can from Saudi Arabia and Iran, who are each supporting two different sides in the conflict. If that is what is happening, it may already be too late to contain this virus (even if there are only 10 cases in the country) as one might not even know where to start looking for potential infections. One article I read also indicated that there is migration from Africa.

BBC (May 3) reports about the state of the health care system in the country:

[Dr Shalal Hasel told the BBC]: "You'll know about the deteriorating health situation in Yemen - especially after conflict and war. Hospitals here are limited and not equipped to receive coronavirus cases."

To prove his point, he's sent me some pictures of doctors in rather flimsy looking aprons and rudimentary masks.

. . . The WHO is helping to equip and staff 37 so-called "isolation centres" in Yemen for coronavirus patients.

As we know from reading about China, if medical workers aren't properly protected, the virus starts to infect significant numbers of them. This could also limit how much care can be provided to the severely ill. Also, when President Trump withholds funding from WHO, this is what the WHO does with the money. I really think that a better way for President Trump to deal with WHO is to demand that Taiwan be allowed membership into the organization.

AFP via Yahoo (May 1) has an interesting article about a narcotic called qat (or khat) that is in high usage in Yemen:

Flouting social distancing rules, Yemenis jostle to select bunches of the chewable leaf from vendors packed into the narrow lanes crowded with stalls.

"If the qat markets were closed, believe me when I say that 98 percent of Yemeni people would object," Sanaa resident and avid consumer Ali al-Zubeiry told AFP.

That, no doubt, is a breeding ground for the virus throughout the country, but those vendors and customers might not have much time on their side.

The New York Times (April 29) reported:

The authorities in Yemen’s port city of Aden announced a cluster of five cases, up from the previous tally of one, and immediately imposed a two-week lockdown including the closure of shops, mosques and markets selling khat, a mild stimulant used by many Yemenis.

The question that has to be asked is: can a war torn city really last in lock down for two-weeks? I'll have to come back to Yemen at some point in this blog to see how this virus impacts this country.