Concerns grow over cholera epidemic reaching northern Syria
The Syrian opposition fears that cholera will reach its areas of control in northwestern Syria, which would be catastrophic, especially since the area’s resilience to the epidemic is low with weak capabilities of the health sector and a great number of displaced persons in camps.
ALEPPO, Syria — The number of cholera cases in Syria continues to rise daily, with the number of deaths increasing. International medical organizations fear that the dangerous epidemic will reach the opposition-controlled areas in northwest Syria, which are crowded with hundreds of camps housing the displaced. These areas also have a significantly weakened humanitarian response and scarce support for the medical sector.
Maryam al-Awad, co-chair of the Health Committee of the Deir ez-Zor Civil Council affiliated with the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, told North Press Agency Sept. 13 that the number of deaths from cholera has increased in areas controlled by the Kurdish forces.
In another statement to North Press Agency Sept. 16, the other co-chair of the Health Committee, Muhammad al-Salem, said, “Nearly 300 cases in hospitals and health centers are suspected to be cholera. Confirmed infections reached 34 and four people died of the disease by the morning of Sept. 15.”
On Sept. 17, the media office of the Syrian government’s Ministry of Health announced that the death toll from cholera has risen to 201. The ministry’s media office said in a Facebook post that the number of confirmed cholera cases is distributed as follows: 153 in Aleppo, 21 in Hasakah, 14 in Deir ez-Zor, 10 in Latakia, two in Damascus and one in Homs.
