PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) ? An epidemic of cholera that has ravaged northern and central Haiti killing 220 people has reached the country’s densely populated capital, according to UN health officials.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said in a statement late Saturday that the Haitian Public Health Ministry’s “national reference laboratory today confirmed cases in Ouest Department, including Port-au-Prince.”
No specific number of cholera cases in Port-au-Prince was given.
The sudden cholera epidemic, mainly in northern Haiti, has sent officials scrambling to contain a wider outbreak 10 months after an earthquake devastated the Caribbean nation.
Hundreds of thousands of people are still living in impoverished tent cities, particularly around Port-au-Prince, where sanitation is poor and where relief groups say the diarrhea-causing illness could spread rapidly.
The PAHO said that while no cases of cholera have been reported in the neighboring Dominican Republican, the outbreak has prompted the Haitian government “to mobilize a contingency plan in the border area, while the border remains open.”
Regional health director Dieula Louissaint said 12 more people died in the Artibonite department in northern Haiti on Saturday, boosting that area’s toll 206, while 14 people died in central Haiti.
