MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th November, 2022) The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that two million doses of Oral Cholera Vaccines (OCV) have arrived in Syria as tens of thousands of cases of suspected acute watery diarrhea have been recorded in the country.
"Trucks carrying two million doses of Oral Cholera Vaccines (OCV) arrived in Damascus, Syria, today. Since the outbreak was declared on 10 September, tens of thousands of suspected acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) cases have been reported in all governorates," the WHO said on the website.
The immunization campaign with the use of vaccines will begin on December 4, the WHO said, adding that the Aleppo, Raqqa, Al-Hasakah, and Deir ez-Zor governorates are the most affected by the disease.
The first cholera cases were detected in Aleppo in August, and the outbreak was declared the following month. By November, the disease already spread to 14 of Syria's governorates and neighboring Lebanon. On October 25, UN Operations and Advocacy Division Director Reena Ghelani said there were 24,000 suspected cases of cholera in Syria and at least 80 cholera-related deaths.
In October, the Syrian Ministry of Health said that the Aleppo governorate was the largest hotbed of cholera, with 576 confirmed cases, followed by the Deir ez-Zor, Al-Hasakah, and Latakia governorates. In Damascus, 14 cholera cases and one death from the disease have been recorded. The number of confirmed cholera cases in the country has approached 1,000.
In late October, Imene Trabelsi, an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) regional spokeswoman for the Near and middle East, told Sputnik that the organization was ready to increase its activities in Syria in order to help the country address the cholera outbreak. The spokeswoman said that the source of cholera in Syria was believed to be linked to unsafe drinking water and sewage systems and the use of unclean water for crop irrigation.
Cholera is an acute bacterial infection transmitted through contaminated food or water whose symptoms include acute diarrhea. A person can potentially die from the illness within hours if untreated, but most people recover after exhibiting only mild symptoms with the help of oral rehydration solutions.
