Lebanon: Lack of safe water and sanitation threatens the ability to contain the spread of cholera

Responding to the Outbreak: Patient Care & Vaccination

In the Bekaa Valley, Doctors Without Borders adapted a unit in its hospital in Bar Elias to be able to receive and treat cholera patients with a capacity of 20 beds, that can increase as needs arise. Since its opening on 31 October, we have received thirty three patients in our cholera treatment unit. The required adaptions made to the unitensures that the other services in the hospital, mainly for essential surgeries and wound care, can continue to run. Doctors Without Borders is also opening a field hospital with a capacity of twenty beds soon in Arsal, an area in the northern east of Lebanon where the nearest public hospital is at least forty kilometres away.

To limit the spread of the disease, Doctors Without Borders is vaccinating against cholera in Arsal, Tripoli, Akkar, and Baalback- Hermel in the north and north east of Lebanon as part of the three-weeks national vaccination campaign launched by the health authorities in the country. Doctors Without Borders is focusing on these areas that are poor and overcrowded where diseases such as cholera can spread more rapidly, putting people living there at heightened risk. In one week, our teams have managed to vaccinate 14,224 people and are targeting 150,000 people in total.

The vaccination activities are taking place as part of a coordinated effort between the Ministry of Public Health, international and local organizations to administer 600,000 cholera vaccines received by Lebanon, as first phase procurement, to combat the recently declared cholera outbreak in the country.

Spreading awareness in the community & training healthcare workers

Since the last recorded case of cholera in Lebanon was in 1993, raising awareness about how the disease is spread and how to treat it, is a vital step to contain the disease. Doctors Without Borders teams are going from door-to-door in the Bekaa Valley, north, and northeast of the Lebanon walking across neighbourhoods, visiting homes, shops, and camps actively seeking out people to raise awareness on the disease and the prevention measures to be taken.

“We provided training to healthcare workers and community health workers among various actors in an effort to support the healthcare system and communities to cope with the outbreak”, says Dr Caline Rehayem.

So far, we provided more than 17 trainings to a combination of 148 medical and paramedical personnel.

Prevention Measures, and Patient Care are essential, however not enough

Enhancing cholera prevention measures, cholera vaccination and patient care are all critical elements when responding to a cholera outbreak. However, cases of cholera and other waterborne infectious diseases are expected to regularly resurface and spread further if no meaningful actions are taken to ensure people’s access to safe drinking water and sanitation services in the country.