First cholera death in Baghdad -- Health Ministry

BAGHDAD, Sept 26 (Reuters) - An Iraqi woman has died of cholera in Baghdad, the first reported fatality in the capital and the first outside northern Iraq, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

A cholera outbreak in Iraq was first detected in August. There are now 2,276 confirmed cases, the vast majority in the north of the country, and 11 people have died of the disease, a ministry spokeswoman said.

Cholera is characterised in its most severe form by a sudden onset of acute watery diarrhoea that can cause death by severe dehydration and kidney failure within hours.

The virulent disease is mainly transmitted through contaminated water and food. About 75 percent of people infected with cholera do not develop any symptoms but the pathogens stay in their faeces for up to two weeks.

The U.N.'s World Health Organisation (WHO) said in its latest report on Tuesday that 2,116 people in Iraq have cholera, which is spreading across the country.