Port-au-Prince, Haiti/Mexico City (dpa) - The outbreak of cholera
in Haiti has so far claimed 313 lives, according to the latest data
provided Friday by the country's health officials.
Around 4,800 other people are believed to be infected with the
serious intestinal disease.
Ten days after the outbreak was officially confirmed, and despite
the efforts of aid organizations in Haiti, the World Health
Organization (WHO) warned earlier Friday in Geneva that the situation
in the Caribbean country was still expected to get worse before it
gets better.
"Everyday we get up to eight new cases," said Caroline Klein,
spokeswoman for Humedica.
The aid organization Humedica is active in the town of Drouin, in
the central Haitian area affected by the cholera, and has set up a
treatment centre for those suffering from the disease, where more
than 1,000 people are being cared for.
The number of deaths and infections is rising more slowly than
when the outbreak was first confirmed, although sick people are
still coming in from villages which had previously been considered
cholera-free.
Haiti was the poorest country in the Americas even before
suffering in January a quake that killed more than 220,000 people and
ravaged much of the country, especially the capital, Port-au-Prince.
The outbreak of cholera was confirmed on October 19 in the area
around the Artibonite river. Haiti had not had an outbreak of cholera
for decades.
Copyright 2010 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH