The interim Ministry of Health said that the Directorate of Health in Damascus and its countryside received 90 typhoid cases within 72 hours only due to eating rotting food and drinking contaminated water as a result of the crippling blockade imposed by the Assad regime on residents in southern of Damascus and its countryside. The Ministry also said that necessary tests were conducted on patients who were give them the necessary treatment, while 32 cases are still under treatment in the hospitals. Dr. Azad Sharif, head of the Department of Chronic Diseases, pointed out that cases of typhoid fever are not limited to Damascus but to many parts of Syria, and that this pandemic disease can infect around one hundred people at a time. Among its other reasons are also the lack of hygiene, contaminated water and eating fruits and vegetables without washing them first.” The town of Harem in northern rural Idlib has recently witnessed the outbreak of the disease, which was also recorded in the province of Raqqa, which caused the spread of hepatitis type a in Harem, Deir Ezzor and Aleppo. Typhoid fever, also known simply as typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi. Sanitation and hygiene are the critical measures that can be taken to prevent typhoid, in addition to careful food preparation and washing of hands before eating. (Source: Syrian Interim Government + Syrian Coalition)
