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Cholera outbreak kills 138 in Haiti

22 October 2010 04:52 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. At least 138 people have died after suffering acute fever, vomiting and diarrhea in Haiti. Many more with similar symptoms have been admitted to hospitals north of Port-au-Prince, APA reports citing Press TV.

A health official said on Thursday that an outbreak of cholera was to blame for the deaths in recent days, reported AFP.

"The first results from the lab tests show that there is cholera, but we don’t know which type", said an official from the public health ministry.

The outbreak was centralized on the northern half of Haiti, said Jessica Du Plessis of the UN humanitarian affairs agency.

According to Du Plessis, there were about 300 people suffering from Cholera-like symptoms in hospitals in the town of Saint-Marc, about 100km (60 miles) north of the country’s capital.

This latest incident comes as Haiti continues its struggle to recover from the aftermath of January’s earthquake which killed some 250,000 people and left more than 1.5 million others homeless.

There were fears of a cholera outbreak in the aftermath of the earthquake when many survivors were forced into makeshift camps under unsanitary conditions and modest access to clean drinking water, but no outbreaks materialized.

Cholera is transmitted by water and food that has been in contact with unclean water, contaminated with bacterium Vibrio Cholerae.

Serious diarrhea and vomiting, leading to dehydration, are the main symptoms associated with Cholera. As the disease has a short incubation period, it can be fatal if not treated on time by rehydrating and administering antibiotics.