Richard Brennan, regional emergency director of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, confirmed that the organisation has been in talks with authorities in Lebanon and other countries bordering Syria to bring in the necessary supplies to respond to possible cases in the country.

“Cross-border spread is a concern, we’re taking significant precautions,” Brennan said. “Protecting the most vulnerable will be absolutely vital.”

Brennan added that vaccines are in short supply relative to global demand.

In neighbouring Syria, the outbreak has claimed dozens of lives and is posing a danger across the front lines of the country’s 11-year-long war, stirring fears in crowded camps for the displaced who lack running water or sewage systems.

The UN and Syria’s health ministry have said the source of the outbreak is likely linked to people drinking unsafe water from the Euphrates River and using contaminated water to irrigate crops, resulting in food contamination.

Syria’s health services have suffered heavily from its years-long war, while much of the country is short on supplies to sanitise water.

Syrian health officials – as of Wednesday – have documented at least 594 cases of cholera and 39 deaths.

Meanwhile, in the rebel-held northwest of the country, health authorities documented 605 suspected cases, dozens of confirmed cases, and at least one death.

Lebanon’s water infrastructure is also decrepit, and the healthcare system has been hit hard by a three-year financial crisis and the August 2020 Beirut port blast that destroyed critical medical infrastructure in the capital.

Despite humanitarian aid from donor countries, Abiad said the sector would struggle to cope with a large-scale outbreak.

“We have a very clear signal that the Lebanese healthcare system needs support to strengthen [it],” he said. “Otherwise … it won’t be able to hold.”