[01/07/2017 05:14]

The rapidly spreading epidemic of has claimed 1,500 lives from 27 April to 30 June 2017, the World Health Organization, Dr Nevio Zagaria, said in a news conference in Sana'a today.

As many as 246,000 were suspected to have been infected. Geographically, the infection covered 21 provinces or 281 districts.

The health ministry's spokesman said on Friday that cholera infection is decreasing in Marib, Shabwah, Saadah and Mahrah, four government-controlled provinces, and is increasing in militia-controlled partsprimarily Taiz .

The outbreak is at its worst in Taiz, the province under years long siege by the Houthi militants. In other provinces health crews are denied access by the coup militia, health officials maintain.

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