Despite that Haraz is part of Sanaa province, the travel from there to the capital Sanaa could take more than 15-hour drive because of the unpaved, ragged, mountainous road as many bridges and paved highway have been destroyed by airstrikes.

These rural districts and villages lack any equipped health centers, which put pregnant women and sick children at high risk.

Al-Sultan told Xinhua that there are other whole families' members who have been all infected with diphtheria from the northern province of Saada, Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, northwestern province of Hajjah and the central province of Ibb.

"The hospital has received this week up to 64 diphtheria cases, mostly children, 11 of them have died, including the two children of Mohammed Saghir Yahya," Sultan said, stressing that the increasing numbers of diphtheria infections was in just one week.

"I called on all humanitarian aid agencies to help us provide medical supplies to combat the epidemic which apparently begin to spread very fast. Many patients have died because the hospital lacks many types of important medicines to treat critical cases," he said.

"We are unable to save many children's lives after the infection reaches their small hearts," he added.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the diphtheria outbreak in Yemen was first reported in October 2017, since when the disease has spread rapidly across the country, infecting more that 1,300 people and killing over 70 until March this year, mostly children.

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