Iraq: Increasing number of people becoming ill from cholera

Every day the number of people falling ill from cholera in Iraq is increasing. The outbreak started in late August and since then 25 northern and 4 southern districts have been affected, along with the central Iraq, according to the health website Spiritindia.com.

“It is estimated that more than 30,000 people have fallen ill with acute watery diarrhoea, among with 2,116 were identified as positive for Vibrio cholerae"

The worst outbreak has been in the northern provinces of the country, and the disease was first detected in Kirkuk, where, according to the article “68% of laboratory-confirmed cholera cases have so far been reported.” From there it has spread to both Sulaymaniah and Erbil provinces and additional cases have also been identified around the country.

The World Health Organization is supporting both the local and national health authorities in the ongoing response operation. According to the article: “Ten interagency diarrhoeal disease kits, each sufficient to treat 400 moderate and 100 severe cases, arrived in Erbil International airport on 16 September.”

It added: “Rapid diagnostic tests are being pre-positioned in remote health care facilities. In addition, 10% of all positive stool samples are being sent to NAMRU 3 reference laboratory (US Navy Advanced Research Unit) in Cairo for further confirmation and phenotypic characterization.”

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