Cholera spreads in Iraq as health services collapse
'Lack of clean drinking water and poor sanitation has led to 5,000 people in northern Iraq contracting cholera.
The outbreak is among the most serious signs yet that Iraqi health and social services are breaking down as the number of those living in camps and poor housing increases after people flee their homes.
"The disease is spreading very fast," Dr Juan Abdallah, a senior official in Kurdistan's health ministry, told a UN agency. "It is the first outbreak of its kind here in the past few decades".'
