Ministry spokesman Saif Al-Badr revealed that the total number of cases of hemorrhagic fever in Iraq reached 214, including 36 deaths. He stressed the necessity of livestock breeders and butchers to take precautionary measures, especially with the approach of Eid al-Adha, and to pay attention to symptoms, including high temperature, body pain and intestinal colic. He pointed out that “going to the hospital with these symptoms can lead to a quick recovery before it develops to the stage of bleeding, which is the most dangerous.”
On Friday, the Iraqi Ministry of Health announced that the number of cholera cases had risen to 19, after 4 new cases were recorded.
Al-Badr told the Iraqi News Agency (INA), that “3 new cases of cholera were recorded in Kirkuk and one in Diyala, which raised the total number to 19 confirmed cases.”
Health experts warn that the simultaneous outbreak of such epidemics will burden the health sector in Iraq, and contribute to increasing pressure on it, amid talk of a relatively high rise in the registration of coronavirus cases in the country.
The calls for concerted official and civil efforts to confront these epidemics so that they can be prevented and controlled, in the event of adherence to the rules of public and personal hygiene and tightening control and inspection mechanisms on the sources of drinking water and food, and on livestock farms, and preventing the phenomenon of indiscriminate slaughter and the sale of contaminated meat on the sidewalks of public roads from without a license.
Viral hemorrhagic fevers are usually transmitted from infected animals to humans through contaminated blood and meat, and because of the lack of supervision and poor health precautions and preventive controls in the work of butchers, and the slaughter of sick animals without examination and control, where the disease spreads more widely.
Although the virus dies if meat contaminated with the virus is cooked properly, it may even be transmitted through the blood of infected animals.
Experts warn that the virus may also be transmitted from one person to another, especially through sexual contact or saliva and various body fluids.
Viral hemorrhagic fever is spread by contact with animals or exposure to infected insects. The viruses that cause viral hemorrhagic fevers live in many animal families, and they mostly include mosquitoes, rodents, and bats.
Some types of viral hemorrhagic fevers include dengue fever, Ebola fever, Lassa fever, Marburg fever, and yellow fever.
Scenes of hanging slaughtered livestock are usually spread in many Iraqi places and public roads, with blood dripping from them and insects hovering around them. These contaminated meat and causing various diseases are sold without controls or restrictions.
As for cholera, according to the World Health Organization, it is a very virulent disease, and it can cause severe diarrhea, and it takes between 12 hours and 5 days for symptoms to appear on the patient after eating contaminated food or drinking contaminated water, and cholera affects both children and adults. It can kill them within hours if not treated.
Most people infected with cholera do not show symptoms, although the bacteria are present in their faeces for 1-10 days after infection, so they are released back into the environment and can infect others.
Most of those infected with the disease show mild or moderate symptoms, while a minority of them develop acute diarrhea accompanied by severe dehydration, and this can cause death.
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