New Cholera Outbreak Hits Iraq

20 Cases Confirmed; Officials Warn Figures Are Much Higher

(CBS/ AP)  Cholera has broken out in a province south of Baghdad and at least 20 cases of the waterborne disease have been confirmed there, a Health Ministry official said Monday.

However, local authorities in Babil province insist the real figure is much higher and have complained that the government in Baghdad has been slow in responding to the outbreak.

Health Ministry official Dr. Ihsan Jaafar said the figure of confirmed cases was based on an examination of samples taken from the victims over the last week. He said one death - a 60-year-old man - had been confirmed.

He gave no date for the death or for when the outbreak was first reported.

"There are other suspect cases but 90 percent of them appear to be diarrhea," he said.

In the provincial capital of Hillah, a member of the ruling provincial council, Hassan Tofan, gave a much higher figure. He said that at least 300 cholera cases have been reported in Babil and that 10 people died recently.

The council issued a statement criticizing the provincial health department and the Health Ministry in Baghdad for being "so idle in measures to prevent the speared of disease," Tofan said.

He said local authorities had ordered all ice plants and many juice stands to close to prevent the spreading of the disease.

Cholera is endemic in Iraq, which lacks facilities to supply clean drinking water, especially in the countryside. Last year, a cholera outbreak in northern Iraq killed 14 people.

Cholera is a gastrointestinal disease typically spread by drinking contaminated water. It can cause severe diarrhea that, in extreme cases, can lead to fatal dehydration. It is preventable by treating drinking water with chlorine and improving hygiene conditions.

In other developments:

The U.S. military has announced a pretrial hearing will be held Sept. 20 at a U.S. base in Tikrit for an Army lieutenant from Oklahoma charged in the death of an Iraqi detainee.The military says 1st Lt. Michael Behenna of Edmond is being charged with premeditated murder, assault, making a false official statement and obstruction of justice in the death of Ali Mansour Mohammed. Staff Sgt. Hal Warner of Braggs faces the same charges in the case.

Al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri has accused Iran of working with U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq in his latest video message. Excerpts of message have appeared on Arab news channel Al-Jazeera and it is timed to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Add a Comment See all 12 Comments

by itgranny September 8, 2008 3:58 PM EDT

When i see articles like this, i seeth! We''ve sent all that money over there and yet the population as a whole is still suffering. We shouldn''t have gone over there in the first place but since we''re there, they should have been figuring out how to make these people''s lives better. We''ve been spending all this money on military and blackwater to make that country safer yet the same thing could have been accomplished so much better and safer with clean water, dependable electricity, good schools and good jobs that pay a living wage. If we would have put our energy and resources into making their lives better instead of blowing up the place and killing people, we''d be leaving there heroes instead of being asked to leave.

this is something the repubs just don''t get even over here. Cut programs, highway funds, education funding, research funding etc and they can''t see the future disasters waiting to happen (such as the bridge in minnesota).

Reply to this comment

by downsteamjim September 8, 2008 4:12 PM EDT

Nancy Naive appears to be suggesting that the cholea is a WMD and that Jesus is the answer. How weird!

Reply to this comment

by itgranny September 8, 2008 4:23 PM EDT

downsteamjim - funny I didn''t have any trouble figuring out what she meant.

Perhaps that''s where the problem lies; reading comprehension of the people on the right. There might be help out there for you to catch up (if the republicans haven''t cut the programs).

Reply to this comment

by downsteamjim September 8, 2008 4:30 PM EDT

To itgrammy: Please forgive me. I don''t attend a racist hatefilled church like Obama''s Rev. White. I look at issues and make comments using sound judgement not spiteful ideology.

Reply to this comment

by republic1776 September 8, 2008 4:41 PM EDT

"cholera outbreak in northern Iraq killed 14 people"
I don''t consider 14 people out of millions an outbreak.
We loose more than 14 people in Philadelphia every week to murder.

Thanks liberals take the focus off of America to push your anti-war agenda.
I guess our brothers in Philly don''t count!

Reply to this comment

by itgranny September 8, 2008 4:48 PM EDT

republic1776-maybe with the money we would have saved by not going to a trumped up war with Iraq could have paid for a larger police force and combatted poverty (a big factor in crime rates).

Reply to this comment

by rudy654-2009 September 8, 2008 4:56 PM EDT

Don''t expect the neocon religious fanatics to care about the health situation of Iraquis. They may claim that they are there because Saddam killed his own people, but they really aren''t that in love with Muslims anyway.

Reply to this comment

by republic1776 September 8, 2008 5:00 PM EDT

itgrammy,
It''s NOT Governments role to combat poverty.
In the long term people "forget" how to make choices, because Uncle Sam does it for them.
New Orleans is a perfect example, they learned a hard lesson from Katrina.
This time people saved their own butts and it worked!

Reply to this comment

by rudy654-2009 September 8, 2008 5:18 PM EDT

Posted by republic1776 at 02:00 PM

When a government destroys the infrastructure of another country, it becomes a responsibility for that government to repair the damage they caused, especially when such damage was considered pre-emptive.

Reply to this comment

by itgranny September 8, 2008 5:24 PM EDT

"This time people saved their own butts and it worked!"

I think you are probably misinformed. In Gustov, Bush declared a state of emergency, people and pets were packed up and bussed to safety and national guards were called in. How this can be thought of as surviving disaster on their own I''m not sure. This is what should have happened during Katrina and didn''t.

Government should be there to help us help ourselves.
Above all, it should make laws to keep things fair for everyone, not just the rich. We haven''t seen that kind of governing in quite some time.

Reply to this comment

by motown67usa September 10, 2008 12:24 AM EDT

The cholera outbreak appears to be spreading rapidly from Babil to Basra to Maysan to Baghdad. The drought, one of the worst in decades, appears to be the main reason. There was 30% less rainfall in the winter and its sapped farming, forced farmers to leave their places in search of work, and decreased the amount of drinking water, leading people to look for untreated sources, and hence the cholera outbreak. For more see: http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.com/

Reply to this comment

by usclimey September 10, 2008 6:50 PM EDT

Found an interesting quote recently

%u201CWhen Iraq becomes strong enough in our opinion to stand alone, we shall be in a position to state that our task has been fulfilled, and that Iraq is an independent sovereign state. But this cannot be said while we are forced year after year to spend very large sums of money on helping the Iraqi government to defend itself and maintain order.%u201D

- Shrub on one of his more lucent days? - No - Winston Churchill in 1922, the last time the Brits invaded Iraq at the behest of Anglo Iranian Oil (Now BP).

Reply to this comment

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[itgranny]

When i see articles like this, i seeth! We''ve sent all that money over there and yet the population as a whole is still suffering. We shouldn''t have gone over there in the first place but since we''re there, they should have been figuring out how to make these people''s lives better. We''ve been spending all this money on military and blackwater to make that country safer yet the same thing could have been accomplished so much better and safer with clean water, dependable electricity, good schools and good jobs that pay a living wage. If we would have put our energy and resources into making their lives better instead of blowing up the place and killing people, we''d be leaving there heroes instead of being asked to leave.

this is something the repubs just don''t get even over here. Cut programs, highway funds, education funding, research funding etc and they can''t see the future disasters waiting to happen (such as the bridge in minnesota).

[downsteamjim]

Nancy Naive appears to be suggesting that the cholea is a WMD and that Jesus is the answer. How weird!

[itgranny]

downsteamjim - funny I didn''t have any trouble figuring out what she meant.

Perhaps that''s where the problem lies; reading comprehension of the people on the right. There might be help out there for you to catch up (if the republicans haven''t cut the programs).

[downsteamjim]

To itgrammy: Please forgive me. I don''t attend a racist hatefilled church like Obama''s Rev. White. I look at issues and make comments using sound judgement not spiteful ideology.

[republic1776]

"cholera outbreak in northern Iraq killed 14 people"
I don''t consider 14 people out of millions an outbreak.
We loose more than 14 people in Philadelphia every week to murder.

Thanks liberals take the focus off of America to push your anti-war agenda.
I guess our brothers in Philly don''t count!

[itgranny]

republic1776-maybe with the money we would have saved by not going to a trumped up war with Iraq could have paid for a larger police force and combatted poverty (a big factor in crime rates).

[rudy654-2009]

Don''t expect the neocon religious fanatics to care about the health situation of Iraquis. They may claim that they are there because Saddam killed his own people, but they really aren''t that in love with Muslims anyway.

[republic1776]

itgrammy,
It''s NOT Governments role to combat poverty.
In the long term people "forget" how to make choices, because Uncle Sam does it for them.
New Orleans is a perfect example, they learned a hard lesson from Katrina.
This time people saved their own butts and it worked!

[rudy654-2009]

Posted by republic1776 at 02:00 PM

When a government destroys the infrastructure of another country, it becomes a responsibility for that government to repair the damage they caused, especially when such damage was considered pre-emptive.

[itgranny]

"This time people saved their own butts and it worked!"

I think you are probably misinformed. In Gustov, Bush declared a state of emergency, people and pets were packed up and bussed to safety and national guards were called in. How this can be thought of as surviving disaster on their own I''m not sure. This is what should have happened during Katrina and didn''t.

Government should be there to help us help ourselves.
Above all, it should make laws to keep things fair for everyone, not just the rich. We haven''t seen that kind of governing in quite some time.

[motown67usa]

The cholera outbreak appears to be spreading rapidly from Babil to Basra to Maysan to Baghdad. The drought, one of the worst in decades, appears to be the main reason. There was 30% less rainfall in the winter and its sapped farming, forced farmers to leave their places in search of work, and decreased the amount of drinking water, leading people to look for untreated sources, and hence the cholera outbreak. For more see: http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.com/

[usclimey]

Found an interesting quote recently

%u201CWhen Iraq becomes strong enough in our opinion to stand alone, we shall be in a position to state that our task has been fulfilled, and that Iraq is an independent sovereign state. But this cannot be said while we are forced year after year to spend very large sums of money on helping the Iraqi government to defend itself and maintain order.%u201D

- Shrub on one of his more lucent days? - No - Winston Churchill in 1922, the last time the Brits invaded Iraq at the behest of Anglo Iranian Oil (Now BP).