Nurse Amir Rashid at a cholera ward in Bebnine, Akkar governorate, with a young patient. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Lebanon on Sunday recorded seven new suspected cholera cases, no new confirmed cases and no deaths in the previous 24 hours, the Health Ministry said in its daily report.
According to the report, Lebanon has recorded 5,135 cases and 23 deaths from the beginning of the first cholera outbreak since 1993, which started in early October.
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, a public water institution, announced there was cholera present in four out of 10 samples collected in the Bekaa from a source in Chtoura, as well as from the Berdawni River in Zahleh and in Marj near a Syrian refugee encampment.
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."
Correction: An earlier version of this article reported seven new cholera cases. Lebanon on Sunday recorded zero new cases, though there were seven suspected but as-yet-unconfirmed cases.