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.
A Syrian woman fills a container with water at the Sahlah al-Banat camp in the countryside of Raqqa, northern Syria, Sept. 19, 2022.
A Syrian woman fills a container with water at the Sahlah al-Banat camp in the countryside of Raqa, northern Syria, Sept. 19, 2022. - DElil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images
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Khaled al-Khateb
@khaleedalkhteb
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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.

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