Conflict, crisis fuel cholera surge across Mideast hot spots
BHANINE, Lebanon -- Shadia Ahmed panicked as rainwater flooded her shack one night, drenching her seven children. The next morning, the kids were seized by vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms.
After an aid group administered tests for cholera in Ahmed's Syrian refugee encampment in the northern Lebanese town of Bhanine, her youngest, 4-year-old Assil, tested positive.
Cholera has swept across Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq as the countries struggle with devastated infrastructure, turmoil and housing large populations of people who have been displaced by conflict. Lebanon last month reported the first cholera case in nearly 30 years.
The bacterial infection has surged globally across dozens of countries this year, with outbreaks in Haiti and across the Horn of Africa as well as the Mideast. The outbreaks of hundreds of thousands of cases driven by conflict, poverty, and climate change are a major setback for global efforts to eradicate the disease.
“Cholera thrives in poverty and conflict but is now turbocharged by climate change," said Inas Hamam, a regional spokeswoman for the World Health Organization. “Regional and global health security is in jeopardy."
Anti-cholera efforts focus on vaccination, clean water and sanitation. Last month, WHO announced the temporary suspension of a two-dose vaccination strategy because production couldn't meet surging demand. Officials are now administering single doses so that more people can benefit from the vaccine in the short term.
A cholera infection is caused by consuming food or water infected with the Vibrio cholerae bacterium. While most cases are mild to moderate, cholera can cause death if it's not treated correctly.
“I would spend the whole night taking her to the bathroom, giving her medication, washing and sterilizing her,” Ahmed, 33, said of Assil, her child who got cholera. “I couldn’t sleep, and was up all night just looking at her. I feared the worst.”
Assil and her siblings eventually got better; she was the only confirmed cholera case in the family.
Across the border in Syria, officials and U.N. agencies announced last month that a cholera outbreak was sweeping the entire country. The outbreak in Syria is due to people drinking unsafe water from the Euphrates River and using contaminated water to irrigate crops, according to the U.N. and the Syrian Health Ministry.
In the government-held areas of Syria and in the country's northeast, held by U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces, there have since been roughly 17,000 cases of cholera and 29 deaths.
In the rebel-held Idlib province of Syria, most of the 4 million residents are displaced from the conflict. They depend on international aid and live in tent camps.
Over half of Idlib does not have regular access to water. Many families use polluted water from wells that are close to sewage.