Yemen: Over 450 Polio Cases Linked to Houthi Ban on Vaccines
A recent UN report has revealed that more than 450 cases of polio have been recorded in Yemen since the virus re-emerged in 2021, the vast majority among children under the age of five, amid warnings of continued spread due to the Houthi group’s ban on vaccines in areas under its control.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, coinciding with the launch of the second round of vaccination campaigns in government-held areas, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF reported that 451 cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) have been registered since 2021, 96% of them in children under five, with the remainder affecting older children.
The statement highlighted that environmental surveillance continues to detect the virus in wastewater, underscoring the need for repeated and large-scale vaccination rounds to halt its spread. The second round of the campaign aims to immunize over 1.3 million children across 12 governorates within government-controlled areas.
Said Jafar Hussein, WHO Representative in Yemen, described the campaign as “critical to closing immunity gaps and moving the country towards stopping polio transmission,” while Peter Hawkins, UNICEF Representative, emphasized the importance of ensuring that children receive full protection against vaccine-preventable diseases.
This development comes amid a severe health crisis in Houthi-controlled areas, where the group has banned all vaccination programs, leading to the return of diseases and viruses among children, including polio, further increasing health and humanitarian risks for thousands of families in the country.
