Haiti’s cholera death toll rises to 136 as outbreak gets ‘worse and worse every day’ Published duration 19 March 2017 Related Topics Haiti cholera
image copyright Reuters image caption More than 500 cholera patients have been transferred from the hospital
The number of Haitians who have died from a cholera outbreak that has seen several thousand people die has risen to 136, according to a report compiled by UN health agency Unicef.
The cholera outbreak has taken a worrying toll with the disease claimed more than 90% of victims.
The UN mission in Haiti has been overwhelmed by the number of suspected cases and deaths.
“We had already begun to see an increase in cases of cholera from the beginning,” Unicef’s deputy chief for emergency response, Josephine Leger, told the BBC.
“But now we are seeing it get much worse and worse every day.”
Cholera is a relatively rare disease which causes severe dehydration, vomiting and diarrhoea, eventually leading to death.
In Haiti, where most cases of the disease are believed to be linked to contaminated water, people are often told to boil drinking water until it was clear and drink only boiled water, which can kill the disease.
However, since January, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the cholera outbreak an international emergency, there have been warnings from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that those who live in cholera hot spots should limit their water intake and be particularly careful with their food.
There have also been reports of tainted food arriving from the Dominican Republic and Cuba and of families being told they were infected with cholera before they had left their homes.
The report on the global death toll from the cholera epidemic was compiled by Unicef, the WHO, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and the Haitian government.
The report says that the number of deaths in the outbreak has reached 96,973.
image copyright Reuters
The outbreak has been brought to an end in the Dominican Republic where the Dominican health ministry said
