Over 440,000 Lebanese have received the cholera vaccination amidst the breakout, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health on Wednesday.
Approximately 70% of people that reside in Akkar, Bekaa, and Central Bekaa – the three regions most at risk for the disease – have been vaccinated.
According to Doctors Without Borders (MSF) worker Khaled Osman to The New Arab, “some people didn’t want the vaccine at first, they were hesitant like they were with the COVID vaccine, but after we explained there was no needle or side effects, they accepted it.”
This is the country’s first cholera outbreak in 30 years, and the cases currently stand at 4,600. On Tuesday, about 20 elderly people were hospitalized in North Lebanon due to symptoms of cholera.
The Ministry of Health declared at the start of November that they had received the first shipment of cholera vaccinations from the French government.
