Health minister says cholera ‘spreading rapidly’ in Lebanon

By AFP 19 October 2022, 6:47 pm

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Lebanon's Health Minister Firas Abiad speaks during a press conference on the first case of cholera, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 7, 2022. Abiad announced the crisis-hit country's first case of cholera in decades. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Lebanon warns a cholera outbreak that has left five dead is “spreading rapidly” in the cash-strapped country, with cases rising after the extremely virulent disease spread from neighboring Syria.

Lebanon’s first cholera outbreak in decades began earlier this month as it struggles amid poor sanitation and crumbling infrastructure after three years of unprecedented economic crisis.

“The epidemic is spreading rapidly in Lebanon,” Health Minister Firass Abiad tells reporters.

Since October 6, Lebanon has recorded 169 cholera cases — almost half of them in the past two days — as well as five deaths, according to the health ministry.