Haiti: Cholera spreads, the authorities try to limit contamination

Written by Sandeep Nehra

Cholera continued to wreak havoc in Haiti, with a record of 1,110 dead on Wednesday, and the disease had crossed the border with a case in the Dominican Republic and one in Florida, which has a large Haitian community.

After the clashes that erupted earlier this week which left two dead and 14 wounded in Cap-Haitien (North) and six wounded UN soldiers in Hinche (center), the situation was calm Wednesday in Haiti authorities reporting zero cases of event or incident.

But the clashes of recent days have helped to impede the distribution of material aid crucial to overcrowded hospitals and refugee camps in the January 12 earthquake, where sanitary conditions are deplorable and promote the spread of the disease that spreads mainly by contaminated water.

Faced with this situation, doctors and aid workers on site insist on informing the population. “We thought that the best strategy against the disease was to focus on ways to prevent deaths,” told AFP Jordan Tappero, head of a team from the U.S. Centers for Control and Prevention (CDC).

“The idea is that people begin to hydrate themselves and go to a clinic,” he says.

Experts were examining the sources and Wednesday the distribution of water, especially in the capital, to check whether people have access to clean water for drinking, washing, do their laundry and cooking.

The latest toll released Wednesday by the Haitian Ministry of Health reported 1,110 dead, 76 more than previously, and the number of hospitalizations increased from 1583, reaching 18,382 since the epidemic began in mid-October .

In Port-au-Prince, the number of deaths rose to 46, against 38 in the previous review.

But the epidemic could affect 200,000 people in the country and make up to 10,000 deaths over the next six to 12 months if no improvement intervention to combat it, has warned on Wednesday Dr. Ciro Ugarte, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a branch of WHO, but stressed that this was the scenario the “darker”.

Scientists were also concerned about the spread of the disease beyond Haiti, after the announcement Tuesday of the discovery of a first case in the Dominican Republic and one Wednesday in a case in Florida.

Dominican Republic, the patient is a 32 year old Haitian who has been hospitalized in Higuey. Florida (south-eastern United States), it is a woman whose identity was not disclosed but was doing “quite well”. She returned to Haiti where she visited family in the valley of the Artibonite, the source of contamination as the Miami Herald.

For several weeks, the Dominican government has implemented stringent controls to prevent the development of the disease and to minimize the entry of Haitians on their territory and trade with neighboring countries.

Florida authorities were aware of the need to quickly test the people showing symptoms of cholera. This state has 240,000 people born in Haiti who regularly return to the country.

• Mother's Day gift ideas 2012
• Sukhoi: Twelve bodies found, the mystery remains about the causes of the accident
• Afghanistan: a man in army uniform kills an American soldier from the NATO
• Laws in Algeria the FLN would be first, followed by Islamists, according to a party
• Behring Anders Breivik trial: a victim's brother throws a shoe at killer