SW News: Dr. Annette Heinzelmann, the World Health Organization's (WHO) chief emergency operations officer, said on Friday, April 21, that Yemen's already-struggling health system is "severely overburdened" and that additional funding from outside sources is urgently required to prevent further collapse.

She told the UN's weekly press conference in Geneva that just $62 million of the $392 million required to assist Yemen's 12.9 million most vulnerable people had been provided to the country's humanitarian "Health Cluster," which includes 46 UN and non-governmental organizations.

According to her, 12.9 million Yemenis are in serious need of humanitarian assistance, and 540,000 children under the age of five are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, placing them at "direct risk of death." She said that 46 percent of hospitals are short on employees, cash, energy, and drugs.

Over 13,000 new cases of measles, 8,777 dengue fever cases, and 2,080 cholera suspects were recorded in the first three months of this year. She did, however, caution that the true figures were definitely far higher.

Yemen's annual flood season will begin, and she anticipates an increase in vector-borne and water-borne illness epidemics as a result. According to her, the WHO has helped 60,000 Yemeni youngsters avoid starvation. The World Health Organization and its Yemeni health partners, according to Dr. Heinzelmann, "are beginning to see the dire consequences of our severely underfunded efforts to mitigate Yemen's health crisis."

As an example, she cited the Yemen Health Cluster's anticipated termination of funding for 23 of 43 health facilities in Marib, Yemen's biggest IDP settlement. As a result, about 2.8 million of the region's most vulnerable people will lose access to healthcare.

WHO ended by highlighting how serious the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen would be if it was neglected. To avoid "unfathomable human suffering and deaths in the coming months," she said, "the international community must increase its assistance to Yemen."