Battling Cholera, Lebanon Gets First Vaccines, and Sharp Words, from France

Battling Cholera, Lebanon Gets First Vaccines, and Sharp Words, from France

Lebanon took delivery on Monday of its first vaccines to combat a worsening cholera outbreak - together with sharply worded criticism of the crisis-hit country's crumbling public health infrastructure from donor nation France.

By Sunday, cases of cholera - a disease typically spread through contaminated water, food or sewage - stood at 1,447, with 17 deaths, since the first were recorded in the country a month ago, the health ministry said.

Lebanon had been cholera-free since 1993, but its public services are suffering under a brutal economic crisis now in its fourth year, while infighting among the country's faction-riven elite has paralyzed its political institutions.

The outbreak has reached Beirut, but authorities say most cases remain concentrated where it started in the northern town of Bebnine, where health authorities have set up an emergency field hospital.

The vaccines would play "an essential role" in limiting the disease's spread, Health Minister Firass Abiad told reporters in the capital as he announced the first batch. He did not specify how many more were on the way.

Standing next to Abiad, the ambassador from former colonial power France said the delivery comprised more than 13,000 doses donated by her government, while urging Lebanese authorities to address the outbreak's