SANAA, 19 June 2004 — Some three million people contract malaria in Yemen every year and 60 percent of the population live at risk, a government website reported yesterday.
“The number of people infected by malaria range between two and three million every year,” Almotamar.net, a news outlet run by the ruling GPC party, said.
It quoted the head of the National Malaria Program (NMP), Dr. Jamal Ghailan, as saying, “Malaria is among the biggest problems the Health Ministry faces.” “To say that we have 60 percent of the population at risk of this disease is enough to show the size of this problem,” Ghailan said. Yemen has a population of 20 million. Last year, the NMP disclosed that malaria killed 15,000 people around the country in 2001 and 2002.
