Cholera outbreak makes way to Haiti's capital
Source: Agencies |
October 25, 2010, Monday
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A SPREADING cholera outbreak in rural Haiti threatened to outpace aid groups as they stepped up efforts on Saturday hoping to keep the disease from reaching the squalid camps of earthquake survivors in Port-au-Prince.
Health officials said at least 208 people had died and 2,674 others were infected in an outbreak mostly centered in the Artibonite region north of the capital.
But cases in towns near Port-au-Prince were rising, and officials worried the next target will be hundreds of thousands of Haitians left homeless by January's devastating quake and now living in camps across the capital.
"If the epidemic makes its way to Port-au-Prince, where children and families are living in unsanitary, overcrowded camps, the results could be disastrous," said Estrella Serrano, World Vision's emergency response health and nutrition manager.
Reports trickled in of patients seeking treatment in clinics closer to Port-au-Prince because the St Nicholas hospital in the seaside city of St Marc is overflowing, said Margaret Aguirre, an International Medical Corps spokeswoman.
At least five people who traveled from the Artibonite region to Port-au-Prince on Saturday tested positive for cholera once they arrived in the capital, where they are being treated, she said. Aguirre said they are not considered the first cholera cases of Port-au-Prince because officials believe the people contracted the disease in Artibonite.
One doctor in the capital reported that a 6-year-old girl from Port-au-Prince's southern Carrefour district tested positive for cholera, although government health officials were investigating and had not confirmed the case.
"The child was in very weak condition," Willy Lafond Edwight told The Associated Press. "She couldn't stand up. I guarantee that if you find one case, many more cases will appear."
Officials confirmed at least five cholera cases in Arcahaie, a town close to Port-au-Prince, and four cases in Limbe, a small northern municipality. Ten cases were reported in Gonaives, the largest city in the Artibonite, said Partners in Health, a United States-based humanitarian group.
The sick included 50 inmates at a prison in Mirebalais, just north of Port-au-Prince, a health ministry director said.
Health officials said at least 208 people had died and 2,674 others were infected in an outbreak mostly centered in the Artibonite region north of the capital.
But cases in towns near Port-au-Prince were rising, and officials worried the next target will be hundreds of thousands of Haitians left homeless by January's devastating quake and now living in camps across the capital.
"If the epidemic makes its way to Port-au-Prince, where children and families are living in unsanitary, overcrowded camps, the results could be disastrous," said Estrella Serrano, World Vision's emergency response health and nutrition manager.
Reports trickled in of patients seeking treatment in clinics closer to Port-au-Prince because the St Nicholas hospital in the seaside city of St Marc is overflowing, said Margaret Aguirre, an International Medical Corps spokeswoman.
At least five people who traveled from the Artibonite region to Port-au-Prince on Saturday tested positive for cholera once they arrived in the capital, where they are being treated, she said. Aguirre said they are not considered the first cholera cases of Port-au-Prince because officials believe the people contracted the disease in Artibonite.
One doctor in the capital reported that a 6-year-old girl from Port-au-Prince's southern Carrefour district tested positive for cholera, although government health officials were investigating and had not confirmed the case.
"The child was in very weak condition," Willy Lafond Edwight told The Associated Press. "She couldn't stand up. I guarantee that if you find one case, many more cases will appear."
Officials confirmed at least five cholera cases in Arcahaie, a town close to Port-au-Prince, and four cases in Limbe, a small northern municipality. Ten cases were reported in Gonaives, the largest city in the Artibonite, said Partners in Health, a United States-based humanitarian group.
The sick included 50 inmates at a prison in Mirebalais, just north of Port-au-Prince, a health ministry director said.
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