An urgent appeal letter to the World Health Organization

Lee Jong ook
General Director
World Health Organization

Mr William fogge
General Director
Global Health Counsel

Mr Donald W Fisher
General Director
American International Health Alliance

24th June 2005

Dear Sir,

The Southern Democratic Assembly is a political organisation, mainly based in the UK. It is main goal is to peacefully strive for liberating the South of Yemen from the North Yemen’s military occupation of 1994.

The Southern Democratic Assembly is gravely concerned about the spread of this mysterious lethal epidemic called fever dengue throughout the different provinces such as Al-hudedah in the North of Yemen. Apparently this epidemic has already killed a number of people and is spearing quickly to the Southern provinces like, Lahj, Abian and particularly Shabwah where 170 cases were diagnosed with this new disease in only one week. Bearing in mind the lack and deliberate neglect of the health service in the Southern governorates makes it easier for the disease to spread fast and kill more innocent people. We wish to commend the WHO for leading the campaign to combat pervious epidemic such as polio that the Yemeni government was ignoring until the civil society started to raise the issue.

In this instance the Southern Democratic Assembly appeals to you in the name of humanity and ethics to intervene immediately to rescue thousands of destitute and innocent people of the Southern cities. Despite tens of people dying every week in these cities the government of Yemen has not tried to take any actions to even help minimise the dire risk of this fatal disease that is quickly spreading to other parts of the country nor provided the very basic medicine for those sufferers. Furthermore the Yemeni government has not raised the issue and declared that Yemen is an endemic country, which we believe, is the nature of this irresponsible regime towards civilians mainly Southerners.

We hope to see that the WHO take our concern seriously and intervene with other partners within it to implement an independent, scientifically driven review panel under the auspices of the World Health Organisation in order to screen this new disease and discover ways of controlling it.

The Southern Democratic Assembly looks forward to working in partnership with WHO to achieve its goals in helping people in crises. Together we can provide access to new epidemic prevention and treatment services for all who need them and help stop the spread of this dreaded disease. However we are not medical health providers but we could help WHO get in contact with certain volunteers in Yemen.

Sincerely,

DR. Abdullah Ahmed Bin Ahmed:
President of SOUTHERN DEMOCRATIC ASSEMBLY

London
UK

24/06/2005