Cholera outbreak hits Syrian refugees sheltering in camps in Lebanon
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[October 21, 2022]
By Maya Gebeily
QUB ELIAS, Lebanon (Reuters) - Syrian
refugees in displacement camps are falling victim to a cholera outbreak
in Lebanon, already suffering from an economic meltdown that has slashed
access to clean water and strained hospitals.
Lebanon recorded its first cholera case in early October -- signalling
the return of the bacteria for the first time in 30 years. It now counts
at least 220 cases and five deaths.
According to the World Health Organization, Lebanon is the latest phase
of a rampaging outbreak that began in Afghanistan in June - then spread
to Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and Syria.
In Syria itself more than 13,000 suspected cases have been reported,
including 60 deaths, according to the Syria office of Doctors Without
Borders (MSF).
Cholera is typically spread through contaminated water, food or sewage.
It can cause severe diarrhoea and dehydration – which can kill if left
untreated.
Most cholera cases in Lebanon have been in the camps, among the roughly
1 million Syrians who have taken refuge over the past decade from the
conflict in their homeland, according to caretaker Health Minister
Firass Abiad.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Oct/21/images/ads/current/state_bank_lda_PPP_2022.png)
He said the three-year economic crisis was partly to blame. The water in
Lebanon's public mains, not just in the camps, was already unsafe to
drink without treatment - but with state coffers drained by the
recession, there is not enough fuel to run government-run water
stations.
Their stagnant waters are becoming easily contaminated while households
face shortages, Abiad said.
DIRTY WATER
Syrian refugees in Lebanon rely on U.N. agencies and international NGOs
to regularly truck in water to fill up cisterns outside their tents and
clear out sewage containers.
But residents of the Idris camp in Qub Elias say those services have
become more scarce, prompting fears of an overflow.
"When the sewage containers would overflow in the past, there would be
dirty water flooding the camp," said Amal, a slender and freckled Syrian
woman living in the camp.
"If there isn't already cholera in this camp, I'm sure we'll get it in
no time."
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![](../images/102122PIX/health28.jpg)
Syrian refugees gather at an informal
camp in Qab Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley October 18, 2022.
REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Oct/21/images/ads/current/longviewbank_lda_PPP_2022.png) Seven cases have been detected in
the Qub Elias area, but the health ministry has not specified how
many Syrians are among them and which camps were affected.
The WHO says refugee camps are a "typical at-risk area", given the
lack of access to clean water and sanitation.
UNICEF said on Oct. 14 it would begin delivering more water to
camps, install handwashing stations with chlorinated water, and
conduct awareness sessions.
The U.N. children's agency in Lebanon has also secured emergency
fuel to run water pumping stations in the north and stop wastewater
from flowing to the coast. But it said it needed $29 million to fund
three months of anti-cholera activities.
Besides Amal, none of the refugees who Reuters spoke to had heard of
the outbreak. Fatima Hussein, a Syrian mother of nine, said she did
not know what cholera was.
"The sewage system?" Hussein said when asked about clean water,
recounting how the toilet in her tent had overflowed countless
times.
She said she had caught her youngest daughter drinking from a local
well, where she feared wastewater was being dumped.
"If something happened to my daughter, I wouldn't know what to do,"
she said.
Most of the refugees Reuters spoke to said they paid for their own
bottled drinking water. But with prices rocketing due to
hyperinflation, that may soon become too expensive.
WHO country director Abdinasir Abubakar told Reuters cholera posed a
"very high risk" for Lebanon – and that transmission to other
countries was likely.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Oct/21/images/ads/current/lincoln_Printers_sda_FOOTBALL_2022.png)
"Now it's affecting more Syrian refugees, but sooner or later we
will see more cases for Lebanese,” Abubakar said. "No one is safe
unless everyone is safe."
(Reporting by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Alison Williams)
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