Health Emergency Program at the Ministry of Public Health announced today, "the end of the cholera outbreak in Lebanon," in a detailed statement outlining the measures taken to combat the epidemic, whereby no confirmed cases of the disease have been recorded since last February.

“As Lebanon witnessed a cholera outbreak that lasted for several months, the Ministry of Public Health, under the directives of His Excellency the Minister of Public Health, unified all necessary efforts and measures to combat this epidemic in cooperation with all parties and relevant ministries, especially the World Health Organization and UNICEF, UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration and the Lebanese Association for Bacterial Diseases," read the statement.

It added that these concerted efforts resulted in not recording any confirmed cases of cholera since the end of February 2023, i.e. more than 12 weeks have passed since the last confirmed case was recorded in Lebanon.

"Whereas the World Health Organization recommends announcing the end of the outbreak at least 4 weeks after the last laboratory-confirmed recorded case, and based on the opinion of the National Committee for Communicable Diseases, the Ministry of Public Health announces the end of the cholera epidemic in Lebanon, starting from the date of issuing this statement, noting that the Ministry will continue to closely monitor acute watery diarrhea through active surveillance," it affirmed.

It added that the Health Ministry will continue to intensify awareness campaigns against acute watery diarrhea in cooperation with the concerned parties, especially in the most vulnerable areas.

Finally, the Public Health Ministry thanked all ministries, teams, and concerned authorities, especially international organizations that participated and supported it during the outbreak, thus reflecting positively on the speed and effectiveness of the response to the epidemic.