Nurse Amir Rashid at the cholera ward in Bebnine with a young patient. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Lebanon on Wednesday recorded six new cases of cholera and one new death, while the total number of new confirmed and suspected cases stood at 366, the Health Ministry said in its daily report published Thursday morning.
According to the report, Lebanon has so far recorded 406 confirmed cases of the disease since the beginning of the first cholera outbreak in the country since 1993 on Oct. 5.
Cholera appeared following an outbreak in neighboring Syria, which has recorded more than 20,000 suspected cases and 75 deaths.
On Wednesday, as they both attended the Arab summit in Algeria, Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati asked Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi for assistance with medicines and vaccines to help Lebanon in its cholera outbreak to which Sisi said he has given orders to respond to Lebanon's needs. France has, for its part, donated 13,000 cholera vaccines to Lebanon to be administered to front line health workers.