17 Victims within two months

Seventeen children in the southern Iraqi province of Diwaniyah have been attacked by snakes and scorpions which have come out of their hiding places due to rising high temperatures, according to statistics released by the children’s hospital in the city.

The director of the women’s and children’s educational hospital, Dr. Muayad Al-Janabi said the children’s hospital had received 17 children who had been to poisonous snake bites in the last two months and that number is increasing with the increasing of temperature.

He said the injured were mostly from agricultural areas and nearby in the districts. and that the number of children bitten by snakes is eight children compared to nine others who were bitten by scorpions and brought by their families to hospital.

The Emergency Department official, Mr. Fadel Hassan Al-Gharabi, said that “the children’s emergency in the hospital received these cases at different times, where first aid was performed and treatment was given. Most of the cases were completely cured, he said.

The Iraqi Ministry of Health warned against walking under the sun and demanded citizens to use solar umbrellas, while the Directorate of Civil Defense issued several recommendations to the citizens, including the caution of the emergence of snakes, scorpions and insects from their ignorance because of high temperatures.

Iraq has seen in recent days a significant rise in temperatures reached in some southern provinces to 50 degrees Celsius.