1. Current Status
- The recent report of Iraq Ministry of Health indicates that 531 laboratory-confirmed Cholera cases have been detected and registered in Iraq, up to 20 October 2008.
- 56% of the cases are found in children below 5 years of age.
- There have been 8 deaths (6 males and 2 females). 50% of the deaths have been in below 5 year old children.
- Epidemiological findings have indicated that contaminated water is the most probable source of the out break.
- 530 cases have been identified as Inaba and 1 case as Ogawa serotypes.
2. Summary
- Table (1) Suspect, confirmed cholera cases, death and dates of the first, most recent reported case by province, Iraq, 25 new cases were reported in last 24 hours
| Province |
No. districts
affected |
Date first
case |
Date most
recent case |
Death
|
Under
investigation |
Laboratory
confirmed cholera |
| Diala |
1
|
09-09-08
|
09-09-08
|
1
| ||
| Wasit |
1
|
30-09-08
|
18-10-08
|
2
| ||
| Erbil |
2
|
07-10-08
|
07-10-08
|
2
| ||
| Muthana |
1
|
07-10-08
|
07-10-08
|
2
| ||
| Missan |
1
|
07-08-08
|
28-08-08
|
1
|
3
| |
| Anbar |
2
|
07-09-08
|
01-10-08
|
8
| ||
| Najaf |
3
|
17-09-08
|
14-10-08
|
5
|
16
| |
| Kerbala |
3
|
05-09-08
|
13-10-08
|
3
|
40
| |
| Basra |
5
|
14-09-08
|
10-10-08
|
1
|
2
|
50
|
| Baghdad |
10
|
18-08-08
|
18-10-08
|
1
|
1
|
78
|
| Diwanyia |
4
|
20-09-08
|
18-10-08
|
2
|
22
|
93
|
| Babil |
4
|
28-08-08
|
14-10-08
|
3
|
15
|
236
|
| Total |
37
|
07-08-08
|
18-10-08
|
8
|
48
|
531
|
- 4 cases were discovered through the
routine testing of negative samples sent for laboratory quality control,
2 of them were from Erbil in northern Iraq and the other 2 were from Muthana
in southern Iraq.
3. Distribution of confirmed cholera by province:
Fig. 1, below shows that the majority (44%) of confirmed cholera were reported from Babil province followed by Diwanyia provinces (17%), Baghdad and, each (15%), Basra (9%), Karbala (8%) , while (Missan, Diala, Najaf, Anbar, Wasit, Muthana and Erbil) reported the remaining (7%) of the total cases.