Health care workers next to a patient bed in a field hospital in Bebnine, Akkar governorate. (Credit: Joao Sousa /L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Lebanon recorded 12 new cholera cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 448 confirmed cases, the Health Ministry said in a statement Monday evening, with the caretaker Health Minister adding that the country is set to receive thousands of additional cholera vaccines from the UN and donor countries.
The country is experiencing its first outbreak of cholera since 1993. Currently, 93 beds are occupied in the country's hospitals to treat patients suffering from the illness, or those suspected to have cholera.
Cholera has claimed the lives of 18 people so far in Lebanon, though no new deaths have been recorded for eight consecutive days.
Caretaker Health Minister Firass Abiad announced on Monday in an interview with the al-Hurra channel that "the High Commissioner for Refugees has provided Lebanon with 600,000 vaccines, which will arrive next Wednesday and will be distributed among the Lebanese and displaced people in three areas with the largest proportion" of infections in Akkar, and the Bekaa Valley, according to the state-run National News Agency.
"In these areas, we will conduct a comprehensive survey so that about 100 to 200 teams will walk across neighborhoods, visit homes, house by house, and give the vaccine to everyone except for those under the age of one," Abiad added.
He explained that the second phase of vaccination will begin following the arrival of "about 1.5 million additional vaccines," which Lebanon will receive "within weeks or less.”
According to Abiad, the vaccines "will not be forced" upon citizens, "but we will intensify our campaigns on the ground to explain the importance of vaccination against the bacteria," adding that forcing the vaccine "might cause a negative reaction" in some patients.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian embassy in Lebanon said in a statement on Monday that a military plane loaded with "17 tons of cholera drugs and vaccines will arrive in Lebanon Wednesday morning." The announcement comes after caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati asked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to provide medicines and vaccines to help Lebanon cope with the cholera outbreak.
France had also donated 13,000 cholera vaccines to Lebanon, which will be administered to frontline health workers, according to Abiad, who also pointed out in his Monday interview that the vaccines' effectiveness will range from 80 to 85 percent, adding that "our goal is to reach about 70 percent community vaccination."
The minister also pointed out that "those who receive the vaccine will have protection against cholera after five to seven days."