Entry 1:

On Sept. 10 the World Health Organization issued a disease-epidemic alert (below) to announce 3,182 recent confirmed cases of cholera in the Sulaymaniyah Governate  province of northern Iraq, and another 3,728 cases of the disease in neighboring Kirkuk Governate. The WHO also reported that cases have recently shown up in a third district, Erbil Governate. Ten people have died so far in the outbreak. 

Currently there are roughly 160,000 U.S. military troops in Iraq, most of them in and around Baghdad. The U.S. Central Command declared on Sept. 2 that the cholera outrbreak was "not an epidemic" and that "[t]he risk of cholera spreading to Baghdad is reasonably low." But Iraqi health officials have since told the New York Times that the illness could reach Baghdad "within weeks" via the occupied country's "decrepit and unsanitary water system."

According to the WHO, cholera "can kill healthy adults within hours." Although "with proper treatment, the fatality rate should stay below 1%"; when sufferers go untreated, "as many as one in two people may die." Treatment for the disease consists of "administration of oral rehydration salts" or, in severe cases, antibiotics and replenishment of "intravenous fluids."

Got a Hot Document? Send it to documents@slate.com. Please indicate whether you wish to remain anonymous.