REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SANAA -- The cholera epidemic in war-torn Yemen has killed 2,048 people since it broke out in April, local media cited the World Health Organization (WHO) report as saying on Wednesday.

A total of 612,009 people have been affected, WHO said on its official Twitter account.

According to WHO data, the most suspected cases were reported from the capital Sanaa and the northwestern provinces of Hajjah and Hodeidah.

On Aug. 14, WHO declared the toll of suspected cholera cases in Yemen reached half a million, the highest on record since World War II.

On Monday, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said the spread of diarrhea and cholera in the Arab country has been effectively curbed, but it warned more deaths from infections as long as the fighting rages on.

More than half of the suspected cases are children, according to UNICEF.

UNICEF accredited the slowdown of the epidemic infection to the "heroic daily fight" of local health workers with international support.

More than 40,000 local volunteers are going house-to-house in a nationwide cholera awareness campaign, with over 2.7 million families, or nearly 80 percent of households reached so far, said UNICEF.

The war in Yemen, which has lasted more than two years and a half, has destroyed the bulk of the country's water and sanitation systems, with more than half of Yemen's health facilities out of service, and about 15 million people gaining no access to safe water and basic healthcare.

The war has also pushed the country into the brink of famine, with an estimated 385,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, thus putting them at heightened risk of acute watery diarrhea and cholera, according to the UN agencies.

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