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Haiti's Cholera Outbreak Reaches Port-au-Prince

   VOA News 24 October 2010
   Women  cover  their  mouths  and noses as they wait for their children
   suffering   cholera   symptoms  to  be  treated  at  the  hospital  in
   Grande-Saline, Haiti, Saturday, Oct. 23, 2010

Photo: AP

   Women  cover  their  mouths  and noses as they wait for their children
   suffering   cholera   symptoms  to  be  treated  at  the  hospital  in
   Grande-Saline,  Haiti,  Saturday,  Oct.  23, 2010. A spreading cholera
   outbreak  in  rural  Haiti  threatened  to  outpace aid groups as they
   stepped  up  efforts Saturday hoping to keep the disease from reaching
   the  camps of earthquake survivors in Port-au-Prince. Health officials
   said at least 208 people had died.

   Haiti's cholera epidemic has reached Port-au-Prince.
   Health  officials  say five cases of the disease have been detected in
   the  capital  as  the Caribbean island nation struggles with the first
   cholera outbreak in a century.
   So  far  more than 200 people have been killed and some 2,600 sickened
   since the outbreak was first reported last week.
   The  disease  has  largely  been  confined to the Artibonite region of
   central  Haiti.  But there is increasing concern that it could spread
   to the squalid, unsanitary camps near Port-au-Prince where hundreds of
   thousands of survivors of last January's earthquake are living.
   International    humanitarian    agencies   are   distributing   water
   purification  tablets,  hygiene kits and other medical supplies in the
   affected areas in an effort to contain the disease.
   Cholera,  a  bacterial  infection, is typically spread by contaminated
   water  and  food.  The disease is treatable but without treatment, it
   can kill within hours.
   An contaminated river in the Artibonite region is the suspected source
   of the outbreak.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP.

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