The number of cholera cases in this city, which had been decreasing this past week, is on the rise again, with the Health Ministry reporting last night 12 new cases. In addition, a 63-year-old man of the Arab village of Ein Arik died of the disease yesterday in Ramallah Hospital in the West Bank, bringing the death total to at least three (one woman may have succumbed to pneumonia). The number of cases per day had fallen to five last week, from a high of 17. The number of acute cases has risen to 46, although only 27 are hospitalized. But Jews, thanks to adherence to sanitary measures, are now the minority of new cases. The Health Ministry, which believes the cholera may spread beyond this city and has urged three new sewage-treatment plants as vital to the eradication of the malady, still does not feel mass vaccination is necessary. The Ministry is seeking to dispel fears of cholera, noting that other diseases, like dysentery, while not as infamous as cholera, are far more widespread.
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