Intestinal infectious diseases

As Yemen enters its third year of civil war, civilians are facing the prospect of another deadly outbreak of cholera, the UN children's fund has warned.

Greek authorities are looking into a new case of cholera that has reportedly been detected at a National Health Services hospital. An enteropathogenic cholera strain was found at the children’s Hospital of “Hagia Sophia” in a 13-day infant which is being hospitalised in the Intensive Care Unit.

An Athens prosecutor on Friday ordered that an investigation be launched to determine whether anyone should be charged with the dissemination of false information following claims by POEDIN, the national union of public hospital workers, that cholera bacteria had been found at the capital's Helena Venizelou maternity hospital.

The Hellenic Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KEELPNO) on Thursday would not confirm reports claiming that there had been an outbreak of cholera at the Helena Venizelou maternity hospital.

In a statement, KEELPNO said that laboratory tests conducted so far had not provided evidence of the cholera bacterium and that the center had not recorded any cases of cholera.

Photographs depicting the unsanitary conditions in the basements of the largest public maternity hospital of the country “Elena Venizelos” were published by the Panhellenic Federation of Workers in Public Hospitals (POEDIN).

The number of suspected cases of cholera resulting from an epidemic in war-torn Yemen has reached 500,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) says, quoted by BBC.

At least 1,975 people have died since the waterborne disease began to spread rapidly at the end of April.

A cholera outbreak in war-torn Yemen has killed 115 people and left 8,500 ill as hospitals struggle to cope with an influx of patients, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Sunday, writes Daily Sabah.

"We now are facing a serious outbreak of cholera," said ICRC director of operations Dominik Stillhart at a news conference in the capital Sanaa.

An acute outbreak of cholera-related cases in war-torn Yemen has claimed the lives of at least 34 people in the past two weeks with over 2,000 people still sick, WHO has said. Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders has warned that the outbreak could spiral out of control.

A cholera outbreak in Iraq has spread to Kuwait and Bahrain, and risks turning into a region-wide epidemic as millions of pilgrims prepare to visit the country, UNICEF's Iraq director said.

The Dutch man, aged 70, who was admitted to the hospital with symptoms of acute gastroenteritis was tested for cholera.

Up to now, the tests conducted for cholera disease are negative.

The tourist is still hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit of a private hospital in Athens.