(PBS) – The cholera epidemic in Yemen is now the largest and fastest growing outbreak of the disease in modern history — the result of a crippling war that has devastated the country, long the poorest in the Arab world, and unleashed a major humanitarian crisis. At last count on October 11, the World Health Organization reported that there have been more than 822,000 suspected cases of cholera and 2,160 cholera-related deaths since the end of April, when the outbreak emerged. The crisis has become so severe that approximately 5,000 Yemenis experience cholera symptoms each day, said Christian Lindmeier, a World Health Organization spokesman.

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