A lab technician works on samples to test for cholera, at a hospital in Syria's northern city of Aleppo on Sept. 11, 2022 (Credit: AFP)
BEIRUT — Lebanon recorded its first cholera death, as well as eight new cases, on Wednesday, according to the country's Health Ministry.
These new cases raised the total case count to 26, spread across northern Lebanon.
Lebanon recorded its first cholera case on Thursday in Akkar. According to the most recent numbers from the World Health Organization (WHO), neighboring Syria has recorded 13,000 cases and 60 deaths since August.
As of Monday, Lebanon's cholera cases remained isolated to the Akkar governorate and the town of Arsal, both in northern Lebanon, a Health Ministry spokesperson told L'Orient Today.
Government entities and NGOs agreed to supply electricity to water treatment plants in North Lebanon, caretaker Health Minister Firass Abiad announced Tuesday, amid concerns about the spread of the disease to the rest of the country.
(Courtesy of Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health)
Lebanon's health system has been hit hard by an unprecedented financial crisis and the Aug. 4 Beirut port explosion, which destroyed essential medical infrastructure in the capital. Minister Abiad said that, despite humanitarian aid from donor countries, the health sector would struggle to cope with a large-scale cholera outbreak.
The last cholera outbreak in Lebanon was in 1993.