Port-au-Prince, Haiti/Berlin (dpa) - One man has died of cholera
in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, the first death in an
outbreak that has killed hundreds elsewhere in the country, Haitian
Health Ministry officials confirmed Wednesday.
The man was said to have died Tuesday.
Port-au-Prince, a city of more than 3 million people, had so far
been spared deaths in a cholera outbreak, which has claimed more than
550 lives across Haiti over three weeks, according to the Health
Ministry. The UN Children's Fund (Unicef) said the illness had
already claimed 583 lives, including those of many children.
Medical officials expressed worry as the disease appeared to gain
a foothold in Port-au-Prince, something the ministry of health and
aid workers had been desperately trying to fend off.
"The situation will soon be out of control," Radio Metropole
director Richard Widmaier said Wednesday.
Major concern remains that unhygienic living conditions in the
slums around the capital could allow cholera to spread quickly. Slum
residents have no toilets or access to clean water.
Conditions across the already impoverished country were worsened
following January's massive earthquake that killed more than 220,000
people.
At least 8,138 people have been diagnosed with the disease in
Haiti, the Health Ministry said.
The latest warning from aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres
(MSF/Doctors Without Borders), said its doctors working in the
capital have treated some 200 people suffering from severe diarrhea,
a clinical symptom consistent with cholera.
"Even if very few of those cases have been confirmed as vibrio
cholera through laboratory analysis, the severe symptoms of the
patients treated in these facilities is extremely concerning," MSF
said.
The medics were offering patients rehydration means and
antibiotics to cope with the sometimes fatal disease.
In the northern Haitian city of Gonaives, 31 people have died of
cholera, Mayor Saint-Justin Pierrelus said. The bodies were burnt
Tuesday, the radio station Radio Metropole reported Wednesday.
Pierrelus requested fast sanitary and medical assistance, because
the bodies had to be disinfected before being burnt.
According to Widmaier, this represents a serious risk for Port-au-
Prince, since there is heavy traffic between the two cities.
Port-au-Prince was ravaged in January by a quake that claimed more
than 220,000 lives. Since then, thousands of people have been living
in emergency camps, although these worry experts less than the slums
because they have better access to hygiene measures.
Cholera, which causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting, can quickly
lead to lethal dehydration but is easily survivable if treated
quickly. The water-borne disease is spread by fecal contamination.
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