Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Cholera death toll nears 300 in Haiti

The death toll from Haiti's cholera outbreak has risen to 292, the Haitian government said Wednesday. There are 4,147 confirmed cases.

Calling Haiti's cholera outbreak "an extremely serious condition," a United Nations official expressed concern Monday that the infectious disease could spread and grow to "tens of thousands of cases."

"It would be careless to plan for anything but a considerably wider outbreak," said Nigel Fisher, U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Haiti.

Officials with the Pan American Health Organization expressed similar concerns about the disease spreading to the Dominican Republic.

CARE has medical teams working around the clock to treat patients in the affected area.

"We also are working in Port-au-Prince, providing hygiene and water purification tablets," CARE spokesman Brian Feagans told CNN.

Missionaries from Tennessee are also doing their part to help contain the cholera outbreak in nearby areas.

"People are aware now; fears are there, but they don't know enough to understand the dangers," Andrea Brewer said.



No comments:

Post a Comment