Shipment of water purifier to prevent Cholera is being held up at the Jordanian border

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092101374.html

Cholera Spreads to Iraq's South

By KATARINA KRATOVAC
The Associated Press
Friday, September 21, 2007; 5:14 PM

BAGHDAD -- Cholera was confirmed Friday in a baby in Basra, the farthest south the outbreak has been detected. Officials expressed concern over a shortage of chlorine needed to prevent the disease from spreading.

A shipment of 100,000 tons of the water purifier has been held up at the Jordanian border over fears the chemical could be used in explosives. Baghdad, which has doubled the amount of chlorine in the drinking water, now has only a week's supply.

World Health Organization spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said in Geneva that Iraq has registered 29,000 cases of acute watery diarrhea, with 1,500 of those confirmed as cholera. All but two confirmed cases are in the north.

The bottle-fed, 7-month-old infant is the only confirmed case in Basra, Iraq's second-largest and southernmost city, WHO reported.