Kuwait bans food imports from Iraq

Kuwait has banned the import of some food products from Iraq following a cholera outbreak in the county, Al-Rai reported yesterday quoting a well-informed Kuwaiti source.

“The ban came in coordination between the countries’ Ministries of Health, Commerce, the General Administration of Customs and the Public Authority for Food and Nutrition,” the source explained.

The decision, the source added, came as an “urgent precautionary measure” because of the spread of cholera in Iraq.

The source pointed out that the Kuwaiti measures included preventing travellers from bringing in foodstuffs through the country’s airports, especially vegetables, fruits, dates and drinking water.

Last week the Director-General of the Public Health Directorate in Iraq’s southern Basra region, Riad Abdul-Amir, said that about 17,000 cases of colic and diarrhoea were reported due to contaminated water over the past two weeks, warning that around 20 per cent of those cases carried the symptoms of cholera.

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