WHO sends medical supplies to Syria to contain cholera outbreak
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – World Health Organization (WHO) sent on Monday a plane carrying 30 tons of medical supplies, including cholera kits, oral rehydration solutions, and rapid diagnostic tests to Damascus to contain the cholera outbreak in Syria.
The supplies are enough to treat 2.000 severe cholera cases and almost 190.000 mild diarrhea cases.
Associated Press said, citing Ahmed al-Mandhari, WHO’s regional director, as saying that Syrian health authorities coordinate with the WHO to control the cholera outbreak.
Al-Mandhari said another plane will arrive on Wednesday with a similar amount of supplies.
It [cholera] is a threat to Syria, to the region, to neighboring countries and to the whole world, according to al-Mandhari.
On September 12, a source from al-Razi Governmental Hospital in the city of Aleppo, northern Syria, revealed the recording of one death from cholera disease.
On September 10, Health Board of Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) announced three cholera deaths in the governorates of Raqqa, northern Syria, and Deir ez-Zor, eastern Syria.
On September 19, first cholera case is recorded in the city of Jarablus, in the eastern countryside of Aleppo and held by Turkish-backed armed Syrian opposition factions, also known as Syrian National Army (SNA).
On September 12, a report published by the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria Imran Riza said that at least eight people died to the disease and nearly 1.000 showed symptoms between August 25 and September 10, when the Syrian Ministry of Health declared an outbreak of cholera in Aleppo following 15 confirmed laboratory cases.
On September 13, the UN expressed its “serious concern” over the ongoing cholera outbreak in Syria, connecting the outbreak to the contaminated water coming from the Euphrates River.
During the past two years, the level of the Euphrates has fell to unprecedented records, after the amount of water flowing from Turkey towards Syria has decreased to below 200 cubic meters per second, which is less than half the amount agreed upon between the Syrian and Turkish governments in 1987.
About a month ago, Turkey has cut off drinking water to Hasakah Governorate, northeastern Syria, depriving all the city’s residents of water ever since.
As alternatives, people in the city buy undrinkable water from tankers filled from wells usually not watched or desalinated, causing diseases.
WHO works on providing good treatment for sick people and tracing the people who are in contact with them, al-Mandhari added.
The supplies will be equally distributed to Syrian areas, including those held by the AANES and those held by the SNA factions, depending on their needs, according the director.
“The health situation in Syria is really very difficult. It is very challenging,” al-Mandhari said.
In Syria, 55% of health care facilities do not work and about 30% of hospitals sometimes do not function due to “lack of electricity,” he added.