Abiad warns cholera cases increasing among Lebanese
Caretaker Health Minister Firass Abiad announced Wednesday that cholera is rapidly spreading among Syrian refugees in Lebanon while warning that cases are on the rise among Lebanese citizens.
“We all know that the issue of water and the means to provide clean water are important as to the issue of the spread of cholera and we are doing efforts in this regard,” Abiad said at a press conference.
“UNICEF has secured a quantity of diesel for usage at the Bekaa and North water pumping stations, so that we get rid of any water that may be polluted,” the minister added.
Revealing that recurrent power cuts at water pumping stations are depriving certain regions of sufficient amounts of clean water, Abiad cautioned that “the water that stays in the pipelines becomes polluted after a certain period.”
“It is important to secure power supply to the water pumping stations in order to provide clean water,” the minister added.
“The Ministry of Health has managed to secure sufficient amounts of chlorine for distribution and we’re working on equipping a field hospital in Arsal,” Abiad went on to say, noting that “there are eight ready field hospitals and treatments requirements and serums are being distributed to them.”
As for vaccination, Abiad pointed out that the quantities of vaccines available globally are scarce due to the presence of several cholera hotbeds but reassured that Lebanon has been promised that it will get quantities of vaccines.
The Health Ministry meanwhile announced that 80 new cholera cases had been recorded over the past 48 hours, taking the total number of cases recently recorded in the country to 169. Two new fatalities have meanwhile raised the death toll to five.
The cases, the first to be recorded since 1993, come as the country struggles amid poor sanitation and crumbling infrastructure after three years of unprecedented economic crisis.
Abiad has said that “the majority of patients are displaced Syrians" and that "the absence of basic services, like safe water and sewerage networks, in places where refugees gather, constitutes a fertile ground for the epidemic to spread in Lebanon."
Syria has recorded dozens of deaths from cholera and hundreds of cases. The United Nations warned earlier this month that the outbreak in Syria is "evolving alarmingly."
Lebanon hosts more than a million refugees from Syria's civil war, which broke out in 2011.
Most live in poverty, and their living conditions have worsened due to Lebanon's economic woes.
Cholera is generally contracted from contaminated food or water, and causes diarrhea and vomiting.
It can spread in residential areas that lack proper sewerage networks or mains drinking water.
Cholera can kill within hours if left untreated, according to the World Health Organization, but many of those infected will have no or mild symptoms.
It can be easily treated with oral rehydration solution, but more severe cases may require intravenous fluids and antibiotics, the WHO says.
Worldwide, the disease affects between 1.3 million and four million people each year, killing between 21,000 and 143,000 people.
Source: Naharnet
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