One person died in Iraq and more than 5,000 others went to hospital on Thursday (May 5th) due to respiratory problems caused by a sandstorm, the seventh to hit the country in a month, the health ministry announced. .
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Residents of seven Iraqi provinces, including the capital Baghdad and the large semi-desert region of Al-Anbar in the west of the country, once again woke up to discover a thick orange cloud, with the sand seeping in in the houses.
"
One death has been recorded in Baghdad and (hospitals) have received no less than 5,000 people so far
," Health Ministry spokesman Seif al-Badr said in a statement.
“
Respiratory diseases
” and “
elderly people
”
"
The majority have left the hospitals
," he said, referring to cases which for the most part are "
of medium or low intensity
".
The most affected are people with "
chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma
", or even "
the elderly
" who suffer in particular from "
heart failure
", he said.
Health authorities in the provinces of Al-Anbar and Kirkuk, north of Baghdad, called on residents "
not to leave their homes
", according to the state news agency INA.
Sandstorms have only worsened in recent weeks in Iraq, one of the five countries in the world most vulnerable to climate change and desertification.
The central and southern provinces are among the most affected.
Seventh sandstorm since mid-April
Meteorological services expect these sandstorms to recur throughout May.
In the capital Baghdad, nearly a thousand cases were identified on Thursday, according to the Ministry of Health.
Hospitals in Al-Anbar province have received more than 700 patients suffering from breathing difficulties since midnight Wednesday, according to a count provided by the spokesman for the local health authorities, Anas Qaïs, interviewed by INA.
This is the seventh sandstorm since mid-April in Iraq, sometimes forcing the airports of Baghdad, Najaf and Erbil in Kurdistan to briefly suspend flights and leading to hospitalizations for respiratory problems.
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During the next two decades, Iraq should experience "
272 days of dust
" per year and in 2050, the threshold of 300 days per year will be reached, assured in early April a senior official of the Ministry of the Environment, Issa al-Fayyad .
Among the measures recommended to combat this phenomenon, the ministry notably cited “
the creation of forests which act as windbreaks
”.