Cholera case diagnosed in Oman: Ministry

Muscat — Omani health authorities have urged caution after a woman who had visited Iraq was found to be infected with cholera, local media reported on Monday. “The Omani woman who was diagnosed with the disease had visited Iraq recently,” the local Times of Oman daily quoted the health ministry as saying. “The patient is receiving treatment in one of the health institutions in the sultanate” and her condition is stable, it added. “The ministry will continue to pursue precautionary measures for some more time,” the ministry said, urging Omanis to ensure they follow strict hygiene guidelines. Iraqi health authorities launched a major vaccination campaign this month to combat a cholera outbreak that has infected more than 2,200 people, raising fears of a possible spread to neighboring Gulf countries. Authorities in Iraq have blamed the cholera outbreak mostly on the poor quality of water caused by the low level of the Euphrates. After a short incubation period of two to five days, cholera causes severe diarrhoea, draining the body of its water. The vaccination campaign in Iraq is focused on people displaced by conflict including the war with the Daesh group. Meanwhile, the Saudi Ministry of Health has reassured that the Kingdom has not recorded a single case of cholera. Deputy Minister of Health Hamad Al-Dhuwaili said during his opening speech at the First Gulf Forum on Epilepsy that the Kingdom has not recorded a single case of the disease that has spread in Syria, Kuwait and Bahrain. — Agencies “UNICEF Treasurer in Iraq Peter Hockings said on Friday the disease is so prevalent in the aforementioned countries that it might turn into a regional epidemic. Some 2,200 people in Iraq contracted the disease by September and six of them had died,” said Al-Dhuwaili. He said the ministry is taking the disease seriously and equipping its preventive medicine facilities. — Agencies