A cholera information sign in a Akkar hospital in North Lebanon on Oct. 25, 2022. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Lebanon on Wednesday recorded two new cholera cases but no new deaths in the previous 24 hours, the Health Ministry said in its report published on Thursday morning.
The country has so far recorded 655 confirmed cholera cases and 23 deaths since the beginning of the first outbreak in Lebanon since 1993, which started in October.
On Wednesday, caretaker Health Minister Firass Abiad said that the cholera vaccine has so far been administered to 500,000 people out of the 600,000 targeted by the vaccination campaign launched last month. He also said that the disease "is under control."
The health minister's statements came shortly after the Litani River Authority (LRA) announced the presence of cholera in four out of 10 samples collected in the Bekaa from a source in Chtaura; in the river of Berdawni in Zahleh; and in Marj, near a camp of Syrian refugees. The LRA linked the contamination to "the discharge of untreated wastewater," highlighting that the disease was present in areas "downstream from camps for displaced Syrians, sewage outlets or hospitals."