A man from a refugee camp waits to vaccinate his daughter in Baghdad, Iraq [Xinhua]

A cholera outbreak in Iraq first reported by the UN last summer has spread to neighboring countries, officials in the United Nations Children’s Fund said on Friday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said that nearly 2,300 in the outskirts of Baghdad have been affected by the potentially deadly disease since September.

According to WHO, cholera is spread mainly through contaminated water and food.

If untreated, it causes death due to dehydration and kidney failure very quickly.

The Iraqi Health Ministry says that six people have died so far.

There are fears that the Vibrio cholerae bacteria may have infected the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, both vital waterways for millions of Iraqis.

WHO said it has prepared over half a million oral cholera vaccines for some 250,000 displaced peoples in Iraq.

The vaccine is taken in two doses.

“The cholera outbreak in Iraq continues to pose a threat inside the country as well as among its neighboring countries,” a WHO statement said earlier this week.

UNICEF’s Iraq director on Friday said that the cholera outbreak in Iraq has spread to Syria, Kuwait and Bahrain.

“It (the outbreak) already has a regional dynamic and the risk of that can only be increased by people from all over the region coming into Iraq,” UNICEF country director, Peter Hawkins, said on Thursday. “Kuwait, Bahrain and Syria have already had confirmed cases.”

UN agencies are on alert as millions of Shia prepare to make pilgrimages to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala for religious holidays in December.

Heavy rainfall last week in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and outlying refugee camps created flash floods, which raised the risk of cholera and other communicable water-borne diseases.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies