These authorities indicated the high number of registered cases, where those infected with them suffer from severe diarrhea and dehydration, which may mean, according to them, that “there is one source for it, which is cholera infection, which comes mainly through contaminated drink and food.” .
On Tuesday, the Director General of the Sulaymaniyah Health Directorate, Sabah Hawrami, warned citizens against “drinking contaminated water sold by tanks or even water from wells, streams and springs, and refraining from buying and eating vegetables, especially leafy ones, of unknown irrigation source.”.
And the health authorities in the governorate took the initiative to allocate hospitals to receive and treat cases, the number of which, according to medical sources, exceeds more than two thousand cases, with the continued registration of new cases, announcing the formation of an operating room to discuss the diagnosis of this disease wave and study its causes. .
Health experts believe that cholera “although it is almost a completely controlled and forgotten disease in most of the developed countries, especially in the field of health care and prevention, but it is almost endemic in Iraq due to the almost annual registration of cases of infection in many of its regions.” .
Commenting on this, the Iraqi health expert, Jamal Bakhtiari, told “Sky News Arabia”: “It is true that in these days we receive such seasonal cases, often associated with changing seasons and weather fluctuations, but with that, the indicators are now worrying, as the number may be in the thousands, Many of them are suffering from severe dehydration in a way that threatens the integrity of their kidneys and various vital organs.”
He added: “The official authorities have not yet decided whether these are cholera infections or not, but nevertheless it remains important to emphasize drinking clean water, preferably mineral packed, or even by installing devices for desalination and purification of domestic water for drinking and cooking purposes, which are available. in the market and at an affordable price.
And he continues: “Also, contaminated food, especially displayed on carts, is one of the main causes of such diseases, especially in the summer, which we usually reach early in Iraq, and the other factor causing the spread of such epidemics is neglecting the aspect of personal hygiene and cleanliness of sanitation facilities. Its supplies are running out.”
According to the World Health Organization, cholera is “an extremely virulent disease that can cause acute watery diarrhea, and it takes between 12 hours and 5 days for a person to develop symptoms after eating contaminated food or drinking contaminated water, and cholera affects children and adults.” Both, and if not treated, can kill them within hours.
Most people infected with Vibrio cholerae do not show symptoms, although the bacteria are present in their faeces for 1-10 days after infection, and thus are released back into the environment and can infect other people.
Most of those who contract the disease show mild or moderate symptoms, while a minority of them develop acute watery diarrhea accompanied by severe dehydration, and this can cause death if left untreated..
During the nineteenth century, cholera spread throughout the world, from its original reservoir in the Ganges delta in India. And then 6 pandemics of the disease erupted, claiming the lives of millions of people on all continents.
As for the current (seventh) pandemic, it broke out in South Asia in 1961 and reached Africa in 1971, then to the Americas in 1991, and cholera is now endemic to many countries around the world, according to the World Health Organization.
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