Today, Wednesday, the Lebanese Ministry of Health announced the registration of the first death cholera in the country With the number of infections rising after the outbreak of the highly dangerous disease in neighboring Syria.
The National News Agency quoted a ministry report that eight new cholera cases were recorded in the past 24 hours, bringing the total confirmed cases to 26 in the northern regions since the disease was discovered in Lebanon on the fifth of this month.
Earlier, the Lebanese caretaker government’s Minister of Environment, Nasser Yassin, confirmed that he had drawn up a road map to combat the cholera epidemic in cooperation with international organizations.
Yassin said in a press statement after a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the Grand Serail in Beirut to discuss ways to combat the cholera epidemic with international organizations, that “the organizations will support all the places that provide water to the camps of the displaced Syrians to ensure their cleanliness, and will support all sewage stations and pumping water with diesel.” Especially in the camps for the displaced in Baalbek, Akkar, Central Bekaa and West Bekaa, in addition to putting chlorine in all water and pumping stations.
The minister explained that the Ministry of Energy will be asked to set up a service line for all sewage and pumping stations to operate them permanently, as well as to launch awareness campaigns in all overcrowded places.
Outbreak ‘alarmingly evolving’
For its part, the Lebanese Ministry of Health confirmed that it is taking all measures related to examining water and sewage channels, taking samples and preparing hospitals.
The meeting also dealt with the need to take care of prisons and vaccinate all prisoners, in addition to paying attention to crowded popular places known as slums.
Syria recorded 41 deaths due to cholera and more than 700 injuries, according to what the official news agency (SANA) reported on Tuesday.
For its part, the United Nations warned earlier this month that the outbreak of the disease “is developing in an alarming way.”
Lebanon hosts more than a million refugees who fled the Syrian war that erupted in 2011.
Most Syrian refugees live in poverty, and their living conditions have worsened due to Lebanon’s economic problems.
Cholera is generally transmitted from contaminated food or water and causes diarrhea and vomiting.
It can spread in residential areas that lack proper sewage systems or drinking water.
Cholera can lead to death within hours if left untreated, according to the World Health Organization, but many infected people do not develop symptoms or develop mild symptoms.
The disease can be easily treated with an oral rehydration solution, but more serious cases may require giving the patient intravenous fluids and antibiotics, according to the World Health Organization.
The disease affects between 1.3 million and four million people each year around the world, and leads to the death of between 21 thousand and 143 thousand people.