Iraq's Health Ministry warned Wednesday that cholera could widely spread throughout the country during the coming two months, a ministry senior official said.
Adel Muhsin, inspector general of the Iraqi Health Ministry, told the country's lawmakers that his ministry failed to control the spread of the disease in Kirkuk, where the first cholera case was detected.
Muhsin expressed his fears that the coming two months would show wider spread for the disease.
"According to the latest statistics of the Health Ministry, Kirkuk province in northern Iraq has the highest number of the infected people with the contagious disease," he told the Iraqi parliament on Wednesday's session in Baghdad.
He said that Kirkuk registered 2,196 cases with three deaths, while Sulaimaniya in northeast of the country registered 842 cases with 11 deaths, along with fewer numbers of the infected people in several provinces in southern and central the country.
Earlier, the Iraqi Health Ministry said that 1,500 cases of cholera have been detected in Iraq with 13 deaths due to the disease, most of the infected and deaths were in northern Iraq where the disease was first detected in mid August.
According to a statement issued by the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 30,000 people have fallen ill with acute watery diarrhea, among which 2,116 were identified as positive for Vibrio cholera.
The WHO statement said that the fatality rate has remained low throughout the outbreak, although it continues to spread across Iraq and dissemination to as yet unaffected areas remains highly possible.
Cholera, one of the most killing diseases, is a highly contagious water-borne disease which causes a copious, painless, watery diarrhea that can quickly lead to severe dehydration and even death if not treated promptly.
Source: Xinhua
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