Health

Sandstorm kills 1 and hospitalizes 1,000 in Iraq

According to the country's weather authorities, the sandstorm began on Thursday and mainly affected Iraq's southern provinces.

Kurdistan 24 2022/03/04 16:28

Fishing boats are pictured during a sand storm in Iraq's southern port city of Basra, March 4, 2022. (Photo: Hussein Faleh/AFP)

Iraq Iraq Climate change Sand storm

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A man was killed, and more than 1,000 people were admitted into hospitals due to the recent sandstorm that engulfed Iraq.

According to the country's weather authorities, the sandstorm began on Thursday and mainly affected Iraq's southern provinces.

More than 1,500 patients have been admitted to hospitals in the Iraqi capital Baghdad for breathing-related problems since the storm began, Dr. Alaa Kazem Al-Muhammadawi, the chief health official of Rusafa district, told state-run Iraqi News Agency.

One patient died as a result of complications, al-Muhammadawi added.

Nearly 30 patients are still receiving treatment for conditions brought on by the storm.

The Iraqi weather authorities announced on Friday that the sandstorm has "ended". It had significantly reduced visibility. Weather authorities also said that temperatures would drop to 3 degrees on Friday.

Iraq is ranked in the top five countries worldwide most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, which further exacerbates droughts that in turn create more arid land from which these sandstorms originate.