Gorilla’s Guides

Cholera Sitrep_7

OVERVIEW:
As of 11th of September 2007, sixteen districts of Northern Iraq have reported laboratory-confirmed cases of
cholera putting over 3 million people exposed to public health risk from this ongoing outbreak:

• All five districts of Kirkuk governorate.
• Nine out of eleven districts of Sulaimaniyah governorate.
• Two out of seven districts of  Arbil governorate.

WHO’s Sitrep_7 report which can be downloaded as a PDF from here has a map showing the relevant districts.

Sulaimaniyah

• Eight out of 11 districts of Sulaimaniyah governorate report cases of acute watery diarrhoea. There have been 9 deaths.  The majority of cases reported from Sulaimaniyah province belong to the over 5 year age group.
• Comparable data on distribution of reported cases by two broad age groups (Under 5 and over 5 year age
  group),shows that a total of 4,289 cases of acute watery diarrhea were reported in the above 5 year age group from Sulaimaniyah province compared to only 599 cases reported during the same period in the below 5 year age group.

Kirkuk

• Of the 6,368 cases reported from Kirkuk governorate from 29th July to 11th of September 2007, it is still not clear how many of these reported cases of diarrhoeal diseases are attributable to cholera since the first index case of cholera, confirmed by laboratory test, was reported on 14 August 2007 (epi week no 33) and up until now, only aggregate data on case counts of all diarrhoeal diseases are available. There has been one death.

Arbil

• Arbil reported the the first laboratory-confirmed case of cholera on September 6th in Erbil centre district. Since then confirmed cases were also reported from Koisnjaq district.  Apart from Arbil centre and Koisnjaq district, no other district in the province has, so far, reported any laboratory-confirmed case of Vibrio cholerae.

Rest of Irak:

• There is no sign that the disease has spread to any other part of Iraq. Reports of a severe outbreak in Diyala appear so far to be based on rumour.

Baghdad

• One stool sample collected from a suspected case in Baghdad has tested negative for Vibrio Cholerae.

Ninawa

• This governorate which is in geographic proximity to both Arbil and Kirkuk province has reported a total number of 392 cases of diarrhoeal disease in last 24 hours of which 70 cases were admitted in different hospitals of the province. Of these, 305 cases were sampled but no stool sample tested positive for Vibrio cholerae.

Dhi Qar

• Out of 37 cases of diarrhoeal diseases reported during last 24 hours, 22 cases were sampled but none of the stool sample collected tested positive for Vibrio cholerae.

Salah ad Din

• 93 stool samples collected from suspected cases of diarrhoeal disease as part of laboratory based surveillance did not yield any positive result.

Indexed under: Baghdad, Dhi Qar (Governorate), Disputed Areas, Follow Up, Kirkuk, Kirkuk (At-Ta'mim) Governorate, Ninawa (Governorate), Salah ad Din (Governorate), الكوليرا