Making Progress
You know, Mr. President, if you really want to talk about something disgusting ...
BAGHDAD - Cholera was confirmed Friday in a baby in Basra, the farthest south the outbreak has been detected. Officials expressed concern over a shortage of chlorine needed to prevent the disease from spreading.Cholera. In Baghdad. In Basra, to the south. And:
A shipment of 100,000 tons of the water purifier has been held up at the Jordanian border over fears the chemical could be used in explosives. Baghdad, which has doubled the amount of chlorine in the drinking water, now has only a week's supply.
World Health Organization spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said in Geneva that Iraq has registered 29,000 cases of acute watery diarrhea, with 1,500 of those confirmed as cholera. All but two confirmed cases are in the north.
The bottle-fed, 7-month-old infant is the only confirmed case in Basra, Iraq's second-largest and southernmost city, WHO reported.
On Thursday, WHO confirmed the first case in Baghdad since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, saying a 25-year-old woman turned up at a hospital with a severe case of diarrhea that proved to be caused by cholera.
Cholera is a gastrointestinal disease typically spread by drinking contaminated water. It can cause severe diarrhea that in extreme cases can lead to fatal dehydration. It broke out in Iraq in mid-August, but until this week had been limited to three northern provinces.
SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq, September 21, 2007 (ENS) - The Kurdistan Regional Government's health minister has warned that cholera outbreaks in the north could spread if the government does not improve its water supply.And:
"If the government doesn't fix the dirty water problem, the cholera outbreak will continue and a huge disaster will occur," said KRG minister of health Zryan Osman.
Dr. Osman said that 13 people have died of cholera in the northern provinces of Sulaimaniyah, Erbil and Kirkuk. The minister reported that 430 people in Sulaimaniyah and 270 in Erbil have been diagnosed with the disease. And Salah Ahmed Ameen, a senior health official in Kirkuk, said 450 people are infected with cholera there.
Diyala province north of Baghdad, the site of fierce fighting between U.S. forces and militants, has reported scores of suspected cholera cases.The problem is out-of-hand, nationwide.
Hom Suhail al-Khishali, head of the provincial health department, said none were confirmed. But he warned that the province's "bad security situation ... is preventing medical teams from reaching the residents."
Cholera is endemic to Iraq, with about 30 cases registered each year. The last epidemic was in 1999, when 20 cases were discovered in one day, said Adel Muhsin, the Health Ministry's inspector-general.I have to say that 29,000 cases of acute watery diarrhea is a lot more disgusting than anything Move On could put in a newspaper ad, and babies dying of cholera is worse. Almost as gross as the posturing of our President, and his claims of progress in Iraq.
The number of confirmed cases does not always indicate the scope of the problem; many people who get cholera do not develop symptoms but can pass on the disease.
The current outbreak has sharply increased Iraq's needs for chlorine. But Muhsin and the WHO said 100,000 tons of the chemical were being held at the border with Jordan, apparently due to fears that the chlorine might fall into the hands of insurgents and be used in bombs.
Several chlorine truck bombings earlier this year killed scores of Iraqis.
The head of Baghdad's Water Department, Sadiq al-Shimmari, said the capital had only a week's supply of chlorine. After the outbreak was detected last month, officials doubled the daily amount of the chemical being dumped into Baghdad's drinking water.
"Without chlorine, the water stations will shut down," al-Shimmari warned. "God willing, we will not reach that point."