Cholera is a disease caused by unclean drinking water that only actually affects roughly 5% of those who are exposed.
[3] Years of trade restrictions, poor management and corruption, and the subsequent 2003 American Invasion of Iraq and Civil War further damaged water infrastructure.
[4] An additional possible contributing factor was the arrest of several head members and deputies of the Iraqi Health Ministry in February 2007, on charges that the Health Ministry was funneling money into Shi'ite militant groups in Iraq.
[5] By 2007, a lack of clean drinking water in Iraq led to an outbreak of cholera.
By September, the outbreak had reached Baghdad and by October of the same year, cholera had spread to 9 out of Iraq's 18 provinces,[8] affecting an estimated 30,000 people and killing 14.