By Anjali Sharma
UNITED NATIONS – World health agency on Thursday warned that a first case of highly infectious cholera virus has been detected in northern Lebanon, raised fears that those displaced by Israeli bombardment may be at risk from the potentially deadly disease.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that a response plan had been activated to strengthen surveillance, contact tracing and water sampling.
The case was confirmed in Akkar, the country’s northernmost governorate.
Tedros noted that the Lebanese health authorities had launched an oral vaccination drive in August targeting 350,000 people.
The health campaign had been “interrupted by the escalation in violence”, he said.
Dr. Abdinasir Abubakar, Acting WHO Representative in Lebanon, expressed concerns that many of those who had fled the violence in the south of the country had no protection from cholera, which thrives in poor water and sanitary conditions. Some 1.2 million have been uprooted so far, according to authorities.
“It might spread very fast,” he said. “Because some of those communities from the south and from Beirut don’t have [much] cholera immunity for the last 30 years and the risk of spread is very high.”
The immediate threat of cholera has presented yet another challenge for UN humanitarians and their partners working amid ongoing devastating airstrikes reported in eastern Lebanon overnight and another on a government building in the southern town of Nabatieh on Wednesday that killed 16 people, including the mayor.
Tedros said that the UN agency has distributed medical supplies to priority hospitals to treat victims of Israeli bombardment.
WHO is working with the Lebanese Red Cross and hospital to equip blood banks with supplies for safe blood donation “and we’re training surgeons to save lives and limbs”, Tedros said.
He added: “The solution to this suffering is not aid, but peace.”
According to WHO tracking data there have been 23 verified attacks on healthcare that have led to 72 deaths and 43 injuries among health workers and patients.
The Lebanese authorities have reported that some 2,200 people have been killed since last October.
“A growing number of health facilities have had to shut down, particularly in the south, due to intense bombardment and insecurity,” Tedros said.
He added that half of all primary health care centres in conflict-affected areas have closed, while 11 hospitals have been either fully or partially evacuated.
“Hospitals are already under massive strain as they deal with an unprecedented influx of injuries, while trying to sustain essential services,” he said.
Tedros insisted that Gaza vaccine campaign success depended on being able to reach “at least 90 per cent” of children under 10 years old across the enclave, “in all communities and neighborhoods”.
A minimum of two doses of vaccine are needed to interrupt poliovirus transmission, Tedros said, before warning that intensifying violence in northern Gaza had “blocked” humanitarian missions.
“In the first half of October, only one UN mission out of 54 to northern Gaza was successfully facilitated,” he said.
“The rest were denied, cancelled or impeded. We ask Israel to give WHO and our partners access to the north so we can reach those who desperately need aid.”
The mission from the WHO and partners delivered supplies and fuel to Kamal Adwan and Al-Sahaba hospitals last Saturday, Tedros said.
He deplored attacks on healthcare across Gaza.
Tedros noted that Monday’s airstrike on the courtyard of Al Aqsa hospital in Deir Al Balah where people were sleeping in tents, “the eighth time that Al Aqsa hospital compound has been attacked since March this year”.
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