Some 1.7 million doses of cholera vaccine sent by UNICEF had arrived in the northwest in January, for the first time since the epidemic reappeared in Syria in September.
The campaign was launched, according to an AFP correspondent, in Maaret Masrine in Idlib province, where health teams roamed the streets of refugee camps and knocked on residents' doors to vaccinate them.
The campaign targeted "high-risk areas" in Idleb province, as well as Azaz in northern Aleppo province, a health official told AFP.
Cholera, an acute diarrheal infection caused by ingesting food or water contaminated with bacteria, is one of the most rapidly fatal infectious diseases if left untreated.
It has been spreading in Syria since September and for the first time since 2009.
About two-thirds of water treatment plants, half of pumping stations and a third of water towers have been damaged by 12 years of war in Syria, according to the UN.
The February 6 earthquake further aggravated the situation.
A UNICEF regional communications manager, Ammar Ammar, warned AFP that after the earthquake, "the increase in the rate of waterborne diseases such as cholera and severe diarrhea in children could be catastrophic. ".
After similar disasters and situations of forced displacement, "lack of access to clean water and sanitation systems increases the risk of disease spread".
Aerial view of the Maram displacement camp in the Syrian province of Idlib, where doctors are carrying out a vaccination campaign against cholera, March 7, 2023 © OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP
More than four million people live in areas under rebel and jihadist control in northwestern Syria.
Since the spread of the epidemic and before the earthquake of February 6, about 85,000 suspected cases of cholera and 101 fatal cases have been recorded throughout Syria, according to the UN.
The director of the Idleb Health Authority, Zouhair al-Qarrat, told AFP that 565 cases including 26 deaths have been recorded in areas beyond the control of Damascus, in the provinces of Idleb and Aleppo.
© 2023 AFP