The Iraqi Ministry of Health announced the registration of 515 cases of suffocation due to a dust storm that hit the capital, Baghdad, and a number of other provinces. Dr. Saif Al-Badr, spokesman for the Ministry of Health, said in a statement today that the institutions of the Ministry of Health in Baghdad and other governorates are working to provide the necessary health services to the injured, noting that cases of suffocation are of different severity. The spokesman added that the majority of the injured left hospitals after receiving health care, and that no deaths were recorded as a result of the dust storm, stressing that ambulances are on alert in anticipation of any emergency. Yesterday, Friday, the regions of western Iraq and the capital, Baghdad, were exposed to a dust storm, the first this year. The Ministry of Environment explained that the cause of the escalation of the phenomenon of dust storms in Iraq is drought, lack of rain, dryness of rivers, and soil fragility and lack of cohesion.
