ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - More than 1,300 cases of suffocation were reported across three southern Iraqi provinces on Monday, according to health officials, as a severe dust storm has swept through the region.
The highest number of cases was recorded in Basra, with 749 people affected. Diwaniyah followed with 350 cases, and Najaf reported over 250.
Earlier in the day, the number of reported cases in Basra stood at 158, but it surged rapidly within a few hours.
“An increasing number of people affected by the dust storms are being admitted to health facilities,” Basra health directorate reported on Monday, adding that “749 cases of suffocation” have been recorded thus far.
The local health authorities in Basra added that “medical and health efforts of the ‘white-coat army' (healthcare workers) are still receiving cases in emergency departments of all of the province’s hospitals and health centers in the governorate.”
Officials have urged residents to take precautions to avoid complications from dust inhalation.
In Diwaniyah, where more than 350 cases were recorded, health authorities said that all hospitals and on-duty centers had “mobilized their efforts to receive the affected persons and provide them with emergency medical services, especially amid the increasing cases of suffocation resulting from the dust storms.”
While some 250 cases were recorded in Najaf, health workers are “fully prepared, providing necessary medical services to patients, including blood pressure measurement, oxygen administration, and urgent first aid procedures to alleviate symptoms of suffocation,” the province’s health directorate said in a statement.
Iraq’s state-run news agency (INA) also quoted a Najaf health department official, Maher al-Aboudi, as confirming that his department is also “providing oxygen cylinders and treatment for asthma and allergies, adding that “the cases received thus far are stable.”
Dust storms are common in Iraq but have become more frequent and intense due to prolonged drought, desertification, and rising temperatures. According to Iraq’s ministry of environment, the country has been experiencing 272 dust days per year over the past two decades. That number is projected to reach 300 by 2050.
Iraq is among the nations most vulnerable to climate change. Poor water management and dam construction in upstream countries have drastically reduced the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The United Nations has called for urgent measures to address environmental degradation and mitigate the worsening climate crisis in Iraq.
