49 cases of viral hepatitis were recorded (Anwar Amr/AFP)
Crises follow Tripoli city In northern Lebanon, it soon wakes up from a humanitarian catastrophe until it enters a living and daily life tragedy, the latest of which is the registration of 49 confirmed cases, as of Monday, with viral hepatitis A, known as Hepatitis A, in the popular areas of the city.
And while you’re waiting Lebanese Ministry of Health The results of water samples to determine whether water pollution is the cause, the Tripoli municipality revealed to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, that “the interruption of electric current From the city for about 10 days, and as a result, the pumps of the public water network stopped, prompting residents of popular areas to consume water of unknown source, possibly contaminated.”
The cases were distributed, according to a statement by the Ministry of Health, yesterday, Sunday, “between the dome, especially Dahr Al-Maghar, and other neighborhoods (Al-Tabbaneh, Al-Mina, Al-Badawi and Bab Al-Raml). A number of them were contacted to find out the pathological and epidemiological characteristics and to try to determine how they were exposed.”
Jaundice is killing the people of “Al-Qubba” and some “villages of Akkar.” So far, “forty injuries in the Dome and thirty in Akkar”! The reason is that drinking water is mixed with sewage.
— Abou Firas& Al Bayda (@AlBayda19) June 4, 2022
In contact with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, the Director of Health Protection at the Ministry of Public Health, Joyce Haddad, explained that “the epidemiological surveillance teams, the Health Protection Directorate in the ministry, and the ministry teams in Tripoli, in coordination with the Health Authority in the North, placed among their priorities the examination of drinking water as soon as possible, and sent This morning, samples were taken to the specialized laboratories, and we have started our investigations, and we are also following up on the patients’ cases and their development, in order to avoid rapid infection, especially that (whiskeria) is rapidly transmitted through water, and is sometimes fatal, especially since we do not know if the infected non-citizens have taken Vaccines or not.
She said, “If it is proven that water is the cause, we will stop its consumption until it is treated and sterilized. But in principle, injuries are often caused by water, and sometimes by irrigation of vegetables and fruits with contaminated water,” stressing that they did not report similar cases in Akkar (in the north).
In turn, the mayor of Tripoli, Riad Yamaq, held the state, the Ministry of Energy and every official in Lebanon responsible, telling Al-Araby Al-Jadeed: “Tripoli has been suffering from a power outage for nearly 10 days, which has caused the drinking water pumps to stop, so residents of popular areas resorted to water Alternative sources of unknown source, such as tanks and others, may be polluted.”
Yamaq added, “We, as a municipality, have distributed water tanks, but we cannot accommodate about 700,000 people in the city. To date, we have not reached an emergency plan for the city, despite all the appeals to officials and stakeholders, and only some good citizens have stood by us in all adversities.”
Putting the municipality’s capabilities at the disposal of the North Water Authority, Yamaq expressed his fear of “a shortage of water sterilizers at the authority, and we, as a municipality and health department in the North Governorate, have started conducting a survey to find out the reasons,” noting that “most of the cases are found in Dahr al-Maghar, al-Badawi and al-Tabbaneh, but they are not Only about 5 cases out of 49 confirmed cases required hospitalization, and their condition is stable, while the remaining injuries were treated at home.
The mayor pointed out that “the popular areas of Kabab al-Tabbaneh and others have witnessed over the years cases of diarrhea, due to the overlap of well water with sewage, so that there is no modern water network in these areas. However, we are in the process of implementing a project to separate drinking water from sewage.”
And the Ministry of Health had clarified in its statement that “the millennium viral hepatitis results from a virus that is transmitted to humans through eating contaminated and undercooked foods, or drinking contaminated water or beverages, and the incubation period extends from 15 to 50 days, and its most prominent symptoms are: fever and feeling tired.” Vomiting, nausea, and yellowing of the skin (wheezing). Therefore, the Ministry advises against eating uncooked foods, and not drinking water of unknown source or suspected contamination, in addition to refraining from using this water to wash vegetables and fruits.
The ministry urged citizens to “observe the conditions of personal hygiene, in terms of washing hands well after using the toilet, and before preparing food or eating it with hands, as the virus can be transmitted orally when hands are contaminated with stool carrying the virus.”