Visitors entering the Judaea and Samaria regions from Jordan were ordered by Israeli authorities today to produce valid medical documents indicating immunization against cholera. The orders followed the discovery of five cases of cholera among Arab residents of the Jerusalem area, Israeli authorities believe the disease was communicated by visitors who crossed the Jordan River bridges. Syria has reported several score cholera oases in recent weeks.
Israeli health authorities meanwhile have begun a clean-up campaign to avert a cholera outbreak such as hit the Jerusalem area and the Gaza Strip in 1970. Helicopters are spraying sewage-irrigated fields on Arab-owned land in the Kidron and Refaim valleys east and southwest of Jerusalem to destroy infected crops.
One of the cholera victims, a 30-year-old woman from Abu Gosh village, had bought vegetables grown in a field that was irrigated with sewage. The woman and two other victims are receiving treatment at the Shaare Zedek Hospital. The two earlier victims, a 15-year-old boy from the Gaza Strip and a 50-year-old man, are reported to be recovering.
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