A cholera case was reported in Basra, the first to be officially recorded by the health department in the southern city, according to Voices of Iraq news agency, DPA reported. The patient, currently under the supervision of the Basra health department, is a 7-month-old baby girl. Adel Mohsen, department head, said the family were using contaminated water and this was likely how the infant caught the epidemic. Recently, the epidemic has spread across northern Iraq, and unconfirmed reports have even said that the illness has spread to central Iraq, including the Baghdad area. But Saturday's case is the first to be reported in the south. According to the latest figures disclosed by the northern self- governing Kurdish region's health ministry, cases in Sulaymaniyah have reached 490. In Arbil, 36 people have caught the disease. In the northern Kirkuk province, the number of cases has increased to reach 930. Ten people have died so far in the Sulaymaniyah and Kirkuk provinces. Iraq's Health Ministry confirmed last week cholera-related figures released earlier by the World Health Organization (WHO) according to which up to 16,000 people were suffering from acute diarrhoea. However, senior ministry officials have insisted that not all of them are confirmed cholera cases. Contaminated water sources have been blamed for the incidence of cholera, a waterborne disease which starts with acute diarrhoea and can lead to death in just a few hours from severe dehydration and kidney failure.
