Fighting cholera and malnutrition in Yemen Globally, cholera is on the rise - with an estimated 1.4 billion people at risk in endemic countries and an estimated 3 million to 5 million cases and 100,0O0-T20,000 deaths per year worldwide. In Yemen 16 million people lack access to safe water and there are over 1 million suspected cases of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) and cholera. In the months leading to 28 June 2017, three UNICEF charter planes have delivered 36 tons of medical and water purification supplies to Yemen to scale up efforts to combat the world's worst cholera outbreak. The supplies included, 750,000 sachets of Oral Rehydration Salt (ORS) enough to treat 150,000 people, 10.5 million water purification tablets and other sanitation items. "We are in a race against time. Our teams are working with partners not only to provide treatment to the sick and raise awareness among communities, but also to rapidly replenish and distribute supplies and medicines ", said Dr Sherin Varkey, UNICEF Deputy Representative in Yemen. "More airlifts of critical supplies will continue in the coming days". In just two months, cholera has spread to almost every governorate of Yemen. Already more than 1,300 people have died - one quarter of them children. Civil servants, including doctors, nurses, water engineers and rubbish collectors have not been paid for nearly 10 months.