Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Mystery epidemic taking toll on Syrian military

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

LONDON — Syria's military was said be fighting a mysterious epidemic that has killed several soldiers and delayed programs.

The Syrian opposition asserted that an unknown disease has been raging through Syrian Army barracks, particularly in the north. The opposition said the suspected epidemic has killed several people and delayed a recruitment program.

"The enrollment of new conscripts has been postponed to the beginning of next month rather than this month," the opposition West Kurdistan Society said.

In a statement on July 12, the society, which reports on the Kurdish minority in Syria, said an undetermined number of soldiers have died of the "unknown disease." On July 10, the statement said, 10 Army recruits were rushed to a hospital in the northeastern city of Qamishli and were reported in critical condition.

The Syrian military has not acknowledged the epidemic. But officials have confirmed that Syrian hospitals were treating many people for exhaustion and other illnesses related to the current heat wave in the Levant.

This marked the second report by the Syrian opposition of an epidemic that has struck the Army. The first report said many Syrian soldiers were hospitalized by what appeared to be dysentery. The disease was attributed to a lack of water, food and poor sanitary conditions in Syrian military training camps.

"There has been a lot of speculation about the reasons for this disease, some blaming the vaccines given to new soldiers, which may have been corrupted," the West Kurdistan Society said. "Others attributed the cause to the state of the weather as there is a wave of intense heat and high temperatures. Some attribute it to a bacterial contamination in water and food in the barracks, and so far this is limited to members of the military, not Syrian civilians."

The Kurdish group said Syrian hospitals were overflowing with soldiers and civil servants believed infected by the epidemic. The report said Syrian physicians have failed to reach a diagnosis and were hampered by poor equipment and training.

So far, at least 14 soldiers, all of them new recruits, were said to have died in the epidemic. The Kurdish group cited deaths in military hospitals in Harasta and Teshrin.

"The Syrian government is unable to provide quick solutions to reduce the spread of the disease, which has turned into a nightmare that haunts members of the Army and the Syrian community in general," the statement said.


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