Beirut - (AFP) - Caretaker Health Minister Firas Abyad warned Wednesday of an "accelerating" spread of cholera in Lebanon , weeks after the first infection was recorded in the country since 1993.

Since the sixth of this month, Lebanon has recorded 169 confirmed injuries, eighty of which were during the past 48 hours, in addition to five deaths.

"There is an accelerating spread of the epidemic in Lebanon," Abyad said during a press conference, explaining that "the vast majority of patients are still displaced" Syrians, but "we have begun to notice an increase in cases among Lebanese citizens."

The authorities estimate that there are more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees on their lands, most of whom reside in random camps, especially in the north and east of the country.

He explained that the "contaminated water" used by the population is one of the "basic reasons" behind the transmission of the infection, in addition to the consumption of contaminated vegetables, pointing out that it was found that "contaminated water with proven infection was used for irrigation."

The cholera outbreak in Lebanon comes after infections were recorded in neighboring Syria, and at a time when the country is witnessing a prolonged economic collapse, which has negatively affected the ability of public utilities to provide basic services such as water, electricity and hospitalization.

Cholera usually appears in residential areas that suffer from scarcity of drinking water or the absence of sewage networks. It is often caused by eating contaminated food or water, and leads to diarrhea and vomiting.

The majority of injuries were recorded in Lebanon among Syrian refugees residing in random camps, which lack the most basic services such as clean water and sanitation networks.

Abyad warned of the repercussions of long-hour power outages on the work of water pumping stations and sewage treatment networks, noting that the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) provided 100,000 liters of diesel fuel to operate the stations in northern Lebanon and in the Bekaa region (east).

Since September, neighboring Syria has witnessed an outbreak of cholera in several governorates, for the first time since 2009. The ongoing conflict since 2011 has damaged about two-thirds of the water treatment plants, half of the pumping stations and a third of the water tanks, according to the United Nations.

The disease affects between 1.3 million and four million people in the world annually, and leads to the death of between 21 thousand and 143 thousand people.