ST. MARC, Haiti — An outbreak of cholera has spread outside a rural valley in central Haiti, intensifying worries the disease could reach squalid tarp camps that house hundreds of thousands of earthquake survivors in the capital.
By yesterday more than 200 were confirmed dead in the poor Caribbean nation’s worst health crisis since the Jan. 12 quake, and authorities said more than 2,000 were sick.
The cholera outbreak has been centered in the central Artibonite region, but at least five cases were confirmed in Arcahaie, a town closer to the quake-devastated capital, Port-au-Prince. Another four cases were reported in Limbe, a small northern municipality.
Medical specialists also were investigating possible cases in Croix-des-Bouquet, a suburb of the capital. Another 10 cases were reported in Gonaives, the largest city in the Artibonite, according to Partners in Health, a US-based humanitarian group.
The sick include 50 inmates at a prison in Mirebalais, just north of Port-au-Prince, Health Ministry director Gabriel Thimothe said.
Health officials are fearful about the outbreak spreading into the capital, where thousands and thousands of people are living in unsanitary conditions in refugee camps.
“It will be very, very dangerous,’’ said Claude Surena, president of the Haitian Medical Association.
“Port-au-Prince already has more than 2.4 million people, and the way they are living is dangerous enough already.’’
Aid groups and the government were rushing in medical and relief supplies, including 10,000 boxes of water purification chemicals, according to the World Health Organization.
The Ministry of Health has confirmed 208 deaths and a total of 2,394 cases of cholera, said Imogen Wall, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. “It’s concentrated in Artibonite right now and we’re doing our best to keep it that way,’’ Wall said.
Dozens of patients lay on the floor awaiting treatment at the St. Nicholas hospital in the seaside city of St. Marc on Friday.
The sick come from across the desolate Artibonite Valley, a region that received thousands of refugees following the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed as many as 300,000 people and destroyed the capital 45 miles south of St. Marc. Most of the new arrivals have been taken in by host families.
Cholera was not present in Haiti before the earthquake, but officials had warned that conditions were ripe for disease to strike in areas with limited access to clean water.
READER COMMENTS »
View reader comments » Comment on this story »