Iraqs Health Ministry announced on Tuesday that 74 new cases havebeen diagnosed over the past 24 hours, bringing the number of the people affected in the current cholera epidemic to 2,325, the Arabic-language al-Baghdadia satellite television network reported.
The report added that at least 32 new victims are from the central province of Babil. As many as 31 people contracted the disease in the capital, Baghdad. Ten patients come from the northern province of Dohuk in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, and another one is from the northern province of Salahuddin.
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An Iraqi man receives a dose of cholera vaccine at the university district in the capital, Baghdad, November 1, 2015. (Photo by AFP)[/caption]Ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae causes cholera. The acute intestinal infection develops fastand causes diarrhea, which can quickly lead to severe dehydration and death if treatment is not promptly provided.
Years of violence has stalled the infrastructure development of Iraqs rundown water and sewerage systems.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered a set of measures aimed at improving hygiene, among them daily water quality tests, distribution of bottled water to families internally displaced due to the conflict, and the installation of additional water purification stations.
Apreviously cholera outbreak in Iraq killed four people and infected some 300 others in the northern city of Kirkuk, situated 236 kilometers (147 miles) north of Baghdad, and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in 2012. Five years before that, about 24 people died of the disease and over 4,000 cases were confirmed.
Iraq faces threats from other water-borne and food-borne diseases such as measles, typhoid fever, hepatitis, and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever due to poor public services and hygiene, according to the World Health Organization.
By Press TV
