World Health Organisation (WHODirector General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a response plan had been activated to strengthen surveillance, contact tracing and water sampling.
The case was confirmed in Akkar, the country’s northernmost governorate.
Speaking late Wednesday in Geneva, Tedros noted that Lebanese health authorities had launched an oral vaccination drive in August, targeting 350,000 people.
But this health campaign was “interrupted by the escalation of violence”he said, a reference to the intensification of firefights between Hezbollah and the Israeli army since the Gaza war broke out last October and the intensification of attacks by Israel last month, amid Hezbollah’s continued rocket attacks on Israeli communities.
Fear of the unvaccinated
Dr. Abdinasir Abubakar, acting WHO representative in Lebanon, expressed concern that many of those who fled violence in the south of the country had no protection against cholera, which thrives in poor water and sanitation conditions. According to authorities, about 1.2 million people have been uprooted so far.
“It can spread very quickly,” he said. “Because some of those communities are from the south and from Beirut have not had (much) cholera immunity for 30 years and the risk of spread is very high.”
The imminent threat of cholera has posed a new challenge for UN humanitarian workers and their partners working amid continued devastating airstrikes reported overnight in eastern Lebanon and on Wednesday on a government building in the southern city of Nabatieh, killing 16 people. were killed, including the mayor.
WHO chief Tedros said the UN agency has already distributed medical supplies to priority hospitals to treat victims of Israeli bombings. The UN health agency is also working with the Lebanese Red Cross and the hospital to equip blood banks with supplies for safe blood donation “and we train surgeons to save lives and limbs,” Tedros said. He added: “The solution to this suffering is not aid, but peace.”
Attacks on healthcare
According to WHO tracking data, there has been an escalation of hostilities since the escalation of hostilities began a month ago 23 verified attacks on healthcare leading to 72 deaths and 43 injuries among healthcare workers and patients.
Lebanese authorities have now reported that around 2,200 people have been killed since October last year.
“A growing number of health care facilities have had to close, especially in the south, due to heavy bombing and insecurity,” Tedros said, adding that almost half of all primary health care centers in conflict-affected areas have closed, while 11 hospitals have been completely closed. or partially evacuated. “Hospitals are already under enormous pressure as they deal with an unprecedented influx of injuries while trying to maintain essential services,” he said.
Gaza polio drive priority
In Gaza, where the second round of a polio vaccination campaign is underway, the WHO chief stressed that its success depended on being able to reach “at least 90 percent” of children under 10 in the enclave, “in all communities and neighborhoods”.
© UNRWA
UNRWA and partners have started the second round of the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza.
At least two doses of vaccine are needed to interrupt transmission of the polio virus, Tedros said, before warning that intensifying violence in northern Gaza had “blocked” humanitarian missions.
“In the first half of October, only one of the 54 UN missions to northern Gaza was successfully facilitated,” he said. “The rest were denied, canceled or hindered. We ask Israel to allow WHO and our partners access to the north so we can reach those in urgent need of assistance.”
After nine attempts, a mission from the UN health agency and partners finally delivered supplies and fuel to Kamal Adwan and Al-Sahaba hospitals last Saturday, Tedros explained, before condemning the ongoing attacks on health care across Gaza.
This included Monday’s airstrike on the courtyard of Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al Balah, where people were sleeping in tents, “the eighth time the Al Aqsa Hospital complex has been attacked since March this year”.
This was said by top official of the UN aid organization Joyce Msuya Security Council on Wednesday that in the past seven days, nearly 400 Palestinians have reportedly been killed and nearly 1,500 injured in Gaza. “The world has seen the images of patients and displaced persons hiding near Al Aqsa Hospital and being burned alive,” the Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs said.
Ms. Msuya noted that more than 55,000 people have been displaced from Jabalia in northern Gaza since early October, “while others remain stranded in their homes, with water and food running out.”
No food aid entered the north from October 2 to 15, she added, “as a trickle came in – and all essential supplies for survival ran out. Distribution of existing food supplies to those in need continues, but these supplies are dwindling rapidly.”