Health care workers stand next to a patient bed in a field hospital in Bebnine in Akkar, North Lebanon. (Credit: Joao Sousa /L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Lebanon on Wednesday recorded 35 additional laboratory-confirmed cholera cases but no new deaths in the previous 24 hours, the Health Ministry said in its report published on Wednesday evening.
According to the infographic, the total number of confirmed cholera cases since the onset of the outbreak in early October, — the first since 1993 — now stands at 490 while the total number of cases, including suspected cases, stands at 3,042.
The total number of people who have died from cholera in Lebanon remains at 18, with no new deaths recorded for the sixth consecutive day.
Meanwhile, the number of hospital beds occupied by patients suffering from or suspected of having contracted the disease throughout Lebanon decreased from 96 to 82.
Cholera manifests itself as acute diarrhea caused mainly by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the Vibrio cholerae bacillus present in feces. But it can also be asymptomatic.
Caretaker Health Minister Firass Abiad announced Tuesday during a press conference that a cholera vaccine campaign will start Saturday, will aim at distributing 600,000 doses and will last three weeks.
Abiad said that the campaign will allow the vaccination of "70 percent of the targeted population in the most vulnerable areas."