29 killed in cholera outbreak in Syria

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29 killed in cholera outbreak in Syria

AMMAN, Jordan: A cholera outbreak in several regions of Syria has killed 29 people, according to the Syrian health ministry on Monday, the UN said on September 26 in what the UN called the worst outbreak in the war-torn country for years.

The ministry said that 338 cases of rapid assessment have been confirmed since the outbreak began last month, with the bulk of deaths and cases in the northern Aleppo province.

It said 230 cases were in Aleppo province, where 25 people were confirmed dead. The rest were spread across the country.

The United Nations said this month that the outbreak is believed to have been linked to irrigation of crops using contaminated water and people drinking unsafe water from the Euphrates River, which is a river that divides Syria from the north to the east.

The highly contagious disease has also spread to the country's Kurdish-held and opposition areas in north and northwestern Syria, where millions have been displaced by the decade-old conflict, medical officials said.

Since the outbreak was announced this month, the US-based International Rescue Committee IRC, which operates in the northern region, has risen to 2,092 in the northeast of Syria, according to the US-based International Rescue Committee IRC.

There were fears of significant under-reporting of cases, it said.

The widespread destruction of national water infrastructure after more than a decade of war means that much of the Syrian population is dependent on unsafe water sources.

Prior to the recent cholera outbreak, the water crisis had caused an increase in diseases such as diarrhea, malnutrition and skin conditions in the region, according to the World Health Organization.