Cholera Outbreak In Haiti – The World Health Organization has announced today that an unknown type of cholera (Colera) has killed dozens of people in Haiti in the last few days.
Artibonite which is apparently ground zero for the outbreak along with La Gonâve and Croix-des-Bouquet have reported a total of 150 deaths and have hundreds of residents suffering from a dangerous form a diarrhea caused by the infection.
Haitian health officials explained that hundreds are currently hospitalized following an outbreak of diarrhea due to the bad quality of drinking water in certain areas of the earthquake-stricken island. But the Haitian Medical Association have already put out some alarming figures that are significantly higher than those announced by the Ministry of Health. Thus far almost 200 people have died – 31 people have died in Saint-Marc, 26 in Drouin and 3 in Verette Mirebalais etc.. and claimed that over 1,500 cases of diarrhea have been reported.The Director General of the MSPP, Dr. Timothy Gabriel told AP:
“Hospitals and health centers are overwhelmed in the affected areas. Hundreds of people are hospitalized and are in the process of evacuating patients to other facilities less congested”
Cholera which had disappeared from the Caribbean over 50 years is a highly contagious disease that can kill within hours.
The vibrio cholerae bacteria which caused severe diarrhea by literally emptying the body of its water can manifest itself due to lack of health care and hygiene.
Since the January 12 earthquake that killed more than 250,000 and forced 1.5 million people to relocate to places like L’Artibonite which is about three hours away from the capital Port au Prince ,countless organizations have been expressing their fears of the birth of epidemics due to the poor sanitary conditions in which people live in the numerous tent cities. Haiti, which is set to hold its presidential and legislative elections on Nov. 28, has also been badly hit by some bad weather recently. Ten people died and three others have been reported missing in recent days after heavy rains poured over the impoverished country.