Saturday, October 23, 2010

cholera outbreak in Haiti

(CNN) -- A fast-moving cholera outbreak in Haiti has claimed at least 194 lives, according to a U.N. spokeswoman.

The country's health ministry is reporting another 2,364 cases from the recent outbreak, said Imogen Wall, spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

This comes after recent heavy rains caused the banks of the Artibonite River to overflow and flood the area. Dammed in 1956 to create Lac de Peligre, the Artibonite River is Haiti's dominant drainage system.

On Friday, officials with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Agency for International Development discussed the outbreak and efforts to work out a containment strategy.

The CDC will send an 11-member team to Haiti over the next few days to find out which antibiotics will be most effective in treating the cholera outbreak. US AID will provide supplies needed to set up treatment centers. The group has already prepositioned 300,000 oral re-hydration kits and are distributing water purification kits in affected areas.

Officials also confirmed that all the reported cases are in the Artibonite and Central Plateau regions, north of Port-au-Prince. They said they're working to contain the outbreak there and prevent its spread to the densely populated capital

No comments:

Post a Comment