Lebanon announces first death from recent cholera outbreak

MADRID, 13 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Lebanese authorities reported the first death from cholera on Wednesday, six days after the disease registered the first outbreak in the country for three decades.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health has indicated that eight new confirmed cases have been registered in the last day, thus increasing the total number of infected to 26. Also, one person has died.

Most of the infections have been registered in the east and northwest of the country. Nearly half of the cases -- 46 percent -- are children ages 0 to 4. The second age group with the most infections are children from 5 to 14, who account for 19 percent.

This Tuesday, the outgoing Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, held talks with representatives of international organizations to prepare a roadmap with the aim of combating the spread of cholera in the country, according to the newspaper 'L'Orient Le Jour' .

The Lebanese Health Minister, Firas Abiad, criticized this Sunday the "regression in basic services" in terms of health, in the context of the recent cholera outbreak. "We have seen a drop in basic services, whether for the Lebanese people or for the refugees. This setback is reaching a level that exposes Lebanon to epidemics that it has not seen in a long time," Abiad said in statements collected by 'L 'Orient Le Jour'.

Precisely this Thursday the WHO warned of the resurgence of cholera at a global level, attributing it in part to climate change. In the first nine months of the year, 27 countries have reported outbreaks of this disease, which has also caused all the alarms to go off in Haiti.

Cholera is an acute diarrheal disease caused by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the 'vibrio cholerae bacillus', according to the WHO on its website, where it stresses that "cholera continues to be a global threat to public health and a indicator of inequity and lack of social development".