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North Iraq is witnessing the second Cholera outbreak in less than five years.
The first detected case of Cholera was on 23 Septmeber 2012 in Suliemanya and Kirkuk.
Many cases of watery Diarrhea have been registered in Erbil, Babil, Saleheldin and Diayla Governorates however, no confirmed cases of cholera have been observed to date.
The majority of the cases registered were in Suliemaneya with 4693 reported cases of Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD) since the onset of the outbreak until 23 October 2012 including 266 confirmed cases of cholera.
In Kirkuk, the total number of reported cases of cholera up to 17 October was 160, confirmed by re-examining the cases in the Central Public Health Lab in Baghdad WHO accredited.
Source of the outbreak
The official declaration of the Cholera as the OGAWA strain was confirmed through lab report on 23 Sep.The Dokan River is likely to be the source of the outbreak. And there are many other factors that played a role such as;
i. The contact in the farm, the markets, and the households with contaminated agriculture produce irrigated with raw wastewater.
ii The use of ice that has been produced with the use of contaminated water in the market is also suspected.
iii. The use and consumption of water from contaminated shallow wells.
iv. Disposal of raw sewerage into the stream and its use in agriculture will likely contribute to future reoccurrence of the outbreak
Two out of 18 governorates are now affected. In spite of the fear that Cholera could be transmitted to other areas as a result of transportation and mobility, results show that the number of hospitalized cases has decreased over the last weeks. In Sulaimaniyah, there has been a decreasing trend as the cases peaked at one point (340 cases on 4 October 2012) but however have been reduced to 129 cases on 14 October and to 57 cases on 23 October 2012. All cases are under recovery and most of them have left the hospitals after receiving the IV fluids (Ringer lactate sol) while others are treated by the antibiotics mainly tetracycline and doxycycline.