Cause of north Iraq cholera outbreak unclear-WHO

GENEVA, Sept 4 (Reuters) The World Health Organisation said today thousands of people had fallen ill with cholera in northern Iraq, but the cause of the outbreak had not been identified.

''The source of infection is very unclear so far,'' said Claire Lise Chaignat, head of the United Nations agency's global task force on cholera control.

She said the northern Iraqi province of Sulaimaniya had recorded a ''three- to four-fold increase'' in acute watery diarrhoea -- cholera's main symptom -- between Aug 23 and Sept 2. There have been 2,930 cholera cases and 9 related deaths in Sulaimaniya over that 11-day period, she said.

Nearby Kirkuk first detected cholera on Aug 19 and has since had 1 death and 2,968 cases of acute watery diarrhoea, Chaignat said.

She cautioned it was not yet possible to say whether all those cases were cholera.

Health officials in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region said last week that a Sulaimaniya water treatment plant had tested positive for the bacterium that caused cholera, and that its filters would be cleaned. Polluted well water was also cited as a possible infection source.

In Kirkuk, cracked water pipes allowing contamination by sewage were blamed for the outbreak.

According to the WHO Web site, sudden large outbreaks of cholera are usually caused by a contaminated water supply. The diarrhoeal disease, which also causes severe vomiting, is rarely transmitted by direct person-to-person contact.

Chaignat said it appeared that the number of cases in Sulaimaniya may have been decreasing over the past week, but stressed it was possible that cholera would continue to spread.

She said health workers in the region ''so far'' have had the resources they need to confront the outbreak. Most cholera cases are treated with oral rehydration salts, though some patients require intra-venous fluids or antibiotics.

REUTERS PD KN1848