The UK on Friday announced £2 million ($2.3m) to treat the outbreak of cholera in Syria.
The money will be channelled to Unicef, the UN aid agency for children, to combat the growing outbreak more than 10 years after the start of the civil war.
Days earlier, Italy announced €500,000 ($498,000) for the World Health Organisation’s cholera response in Syria.
The UK’s money will help to establish cholera treatment centres, give people access to cholera kits, and train the public on how to prevent the spread of cholera, the UK Foreign Office said in a statement.
“We are deeply concerned by the cholera outbreak across Syria, the first in more than 10 years,” Minister of State Lord Tariq Ahmad said.
“With humanitarian needs the highest they have ever been, there is a significant risk that malnutrition, lack of access to clean water and chronic conditions, will see the situation deteriorate even further.”
He said that the funding would provide lifesaving care and that the UK had “not forgotten” Syria.
The WHO has sounded the alarm over the rising cases of cholera in Syria that have spread to neighbouring Lebanon.
On October 22, the Syria Health Ministry reported a cholera outbreak in 13 of 14 governorates with a total of 44 deaths and 942 confirmed cases.
Cholera is a bacteria that sickens people who swallow contaminated food or water, and it can cause severe vomiting and diarrhoea, in some cases leading to death.
However, given the rising caseload and a shortage of supplies, the WHO last week recommended partners and countries only give one dose of the cholera vaccine instead of two.
It said that one dose of vaccine has proven effective in stopping outbreaks “even though evidence on the exact duration of protection is limited” and appears to be lower in children.
“This last-resort decision is a way to avoid making the impossible choice of sending doses to one country over another,” said Dr Daniela Garone, international medical co-ordinator at Doctors Without Borders, one of WHO’s partners in managing the global cholera vaccine stockpile.
“Single dose vaccination will provide shorter protection, but it is the fair and equitable way to try to protect as many people as possible as we face simultaneous cholera outbreaks.”
The outbreak in Syria comes as Haiti’s hospitals are overwhelmed with cases, and Nigeria has reported an outbreak where more than 5,000 cases were recorded in north-eastern Borno state.
WHO said that of the 36 million vaccine doses expected for 2022, 24 million were already been shipped for immunisation campaigns.
It said there was no short-term solution to increase production. A global task force on cholera has estimated that the world needs about 250 million cholera vaccines until 2025, both to stop outbreaks and for preventive immunisation campaigns.
Shantha Biotechnics, an Indian subsidiary of the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi, announced that it would stop making cholera vaccines by the end of this year.
This leaves the world with one manufacturer, the South Korean company EuBiologics, for the easy-to-produce oral vaccine.
— Additional reporting by agencies
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Rating: 3/5
Directed by: David Yates
Starring: Mads Mikkelson, Eddie Redmayne, Ezra Miller, Jude Law
HIJRA
Starring: Lamar Faden, Khairiah Nathmy, Nawaf Al-Dhufairy
Director: Shahad Ameen
Rating: 3/5
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Ruwais timeline
1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established
1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants
1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed
1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.
1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex
2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea
2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd
2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens
2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies
2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export
2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.
2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery
2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital
2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13
Source: The National
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Manchester City 1 (Gundogan 56')
Shakhtar Donetsk 1 (Solomon 69')
How tumultuous protests grew
- A fuel tax protest by French drivers appealed to wider anti-government sentiment
- Unlike previous French demonstrations there was no trade union or organised movement involved
- Demonstrators responded to online petitions and flooded squares to block traffic
- At its height there were almost 300,000 on the streets in support
- Named after the high visibility jackets that drivers must keep in cars
- Clashes soon turned violent as thousands fought with police at cordons
- An estimated two dozen people lost eyes and many others were admitted to hospital
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Results
2pm: Serve U – Maiden (TB) Dh60,000 (Dirt) 1,400m; Winner: Violent Justice, Pat Dobbs (jockey), Doug Watson (trainer)
2.30pm: Al Shafar Investment – Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,400m; Winner: Desert Wisdom, Bernardo Pinheiro, Ahmed Al Shemaili
3pm: Commercial Bank of Dubai – Handicap (TB) Dh68,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: Fawaareq, Sam Hitchcott, Doug Watson
3.30pm: Shadwell – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Down On Da Bayou, Xavier Ziani, Salem bin Ghadayer
4pm: Dubai Real Estate Centre – Maiden (TB) Dh60,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Rakeez, Patrick Cosgrave, Bhupat Seemar
4.30pm: Al Redha Insurance Brokers – Handicap (TB) Dh78,000 (D) 1,800m; Winner: Capla Crusader, Bernardo Pinheiro, Rashed Bouresly
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Essentials
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly direct from the UAE to Geneva from Dh2,845 return, including taxes. The flight takes 6 hours.
The package
Clinique La Prairie offers a variety of programmes. A six-night Master Detox costs from 14,900 Swiss francs (Dh57,655), including all food, accommodation and a set schedule of medical consultations and spa treatments.
