ST. MARC, Haiti — An outbreak of severe diarrhea has killed at least 135 people in rural central Haiti and sickened hundreds more who overwhelmed a crowded hospital yesterday seeking treatment. Health workers suspected the disease is cholera, but were awaiting tests.
Hundreds of patients lay on blankets in a parking lot outside St. Nicholas Hospital in the port city of St. Marc with IVs in their arms for rehydration. As rain began to fall in the afternoon, nurses rushed to carry them inside.
Doctors were testing for cholera, typhoid, and other illnesses in the Caribbean nation’s deadliest outbreak since a January earthquake that killed as many as 300,000 people.
Catherine Huck, deputy country director for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the Caribbean nation’s health ministry had recorded 135 deaths and more than 1,000 infected people.
“What we know is that people have diarrhea, and they are vomiting, and [they] can go quickly if they are not seen in time,’’ Huck said. She said doctors were still awaiting lab results to pinpoint the disease.
The president of the Haitian Medical Association, Claude Surena, said the cause appeared to be cholera, but added that had not been confirmed by the government.
“The concern is that it could go from one place to another place, and it could affect more people or move from one region to another one,’’ he said.
Cholera is a bacterial infection spread through contaminated water. It causes severe diarrhea and vomiting that can lead to dehydration and death within hours.
The sick come from across the rural Artibonite region, which suffered little damage in the Jan. 12 quake but has absorbed thousands of refugees from the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince, 45 miles south of St. Marc.
Some patients said they drank water from a public canal, while others said they bought purified water. All complained of symptoms including fever, vomiting, and severe diarrhea.
