Northern Iraq is witnessing a second cholera outbreak in less than five years. The first detected case of cholera was on 23 September 2012.
Many cases of watery diarrhoea have been registered in Erbil, Babil, Saleheldin and Diayla governorates, however, no confirmed cases of cholera have been reported to date. The majority of the cases registered were in Suleimaniyah with 4693 reported cases of acute watery diarrhoea since the onset of the outbreak until 23 October 2012, including 266 confirmed cases of cholera.
In Kirkuk, the total number of reported cases of cholera up to 17 October 2012 was 160, confirmed by re-examining cases in the WHO-accredited Central Public Health Laboratory in Baghdad.