Nurse Amir Rashid at a cholera ward in Bebnine, Akkar governorate, with a young patient. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Lebanon on Saturday recorded one new cholera case but no additional deaths in the previous 24 hours, the Health Ministry said in its report published on Sunday morning.
The country has so far recorded 658 confirmed cholera cases and 23 deaths since the beginning of the outbreak in early October, Lebanon's first since 1993.
On Wednesday, caretaker Health Minister Firass Abiad said that the cholera vaccine has 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."