A study using high-resolution satellite imagery to analyze cemeteries has found that deaths have almost doubled in Aden, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Yemen.
This discovery provides a true understanding of the extent to which an epidemic has spread to a sensitive country.
The research was carried out by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Geography Analysis Specialist Satellite Application Capital.
Researchers used satellite images, official data sources, and interviews with researchers in the city of Aden to certify burial activity in all known cemeteries within the city of Aden.
There were about 2,100 additional deaths in the area between April and September 2020, against the expected baseline of about 1,300 deaths, the study found.
The findings represent the first significant quantitative data on Yemen’s Covid-19 outbreak, and should help epidemic response planning and other important humanitarian interventions. A similar project is underway in Somalia by the same team.
Emily Kaum Besson, a lead author at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said:
“You can say X or Y about an epidemic, but if there is no data for it, you don’t really know its effect. Using satellite imagery to create public health data is a new science and we hope it Will be useful in affected areas. “
Yemen, which the UN says has experienced the world’s worst humanitarian crisis since the conflict between Iranian-backed Iranian rebels and a Saudi-led coalition to re-establish the Yemeni government five years ago, is particularly susceptible to the coronavirus epidemic.
The official total number of coronavirus cases is only 2,060, and the death toll is put at 599 to date, but the testing capacity is almost non-existent. A study published in July also found that at least 97 Yemeni healthcare workers had already died from the disease, a number indicating that the true case load and mortality figure was higher than the record.
While the epidemic appears to have passed through the city of Aden, healthcare and support staff are concerned that the disease may exacerbate or obscure other pressing issues for Yemen’s vulnerable population.
UN officials warned on Tuesday that acute child malnutrition had reached an all-time high in parts of the country, for which data were available, with about 100,000 children now at risk of death.
Many prisoner exchanges last week expressed hope that peaceful talks could resume, but the coronavirus epidemic, economic collapse, floods, growing armed conflict and significant steps in this year’s global appeal for aid to Yemen have contributed to the evolving humanitarian situation. .
The UN says that as of mid-October, only 43 1.43 billion (n 1.1bn) of the 2020 3.2bn (45 2.45bn) needed for a full 2020 humanitarian response to Yemen has been received.
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