Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad has announced the announcement next Tuesday of a national plan against cholera to contain an outbreak that has already left nearly 20 dead and more than 410 cases in a country paralyzed by the economic crisis and where the disease threatens to become endemic.
«We cannot allow that to happen,» the minister said Saturday at the announcement of preparations for a vaccination campaign in the northeast of the country, one of the epicenters of the crisis, following the arrival of a first donation of 13,400 doses of vaccines from France.
These vaccines «will be distributed mainly to front-line health workers, doctors and others,» he said from the government hospital in Halba, the capital of Akkar, where the country recorded its first case of cholera in 30 years on October 6.
The plan to be announced Tuesday will focus on achieving «more than 70% immunization coverage for people in the region» in what he described as «a golden opportunity» to prevent the disease from becoming entrenched.
An endemic outbreak of cholera, he warned in statements reported by ‘L’Orient le Jour’, would trigger «a major health, agricultural, tourism and economic crisis» in the country.
For the time being, Lebanon has already started an additional vaccination campaign among the most vulnerable populations, such as prisoners in the region or inhabitants of refugee camps.
As far as the number of cases is concerned, the country has registered three new infections in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 416. The number of deaths remains at 18, according to the Ministry of Health. A total of 94 people remain hospitalized.
