The death toll of the cholera epidemic raging in Haiti since mid-October has exceeded a thousand. The Haitian health ministry said on Tuesday that 1034 people have died so far.
The ministry informed that 16 799 people were admitted to hospitals. There were 38 deaths in the nation’s capital Port-au-Prince.
The disease spreads most rapidly in slums where – especially after the January earthquake – sanitation is catastrophic; there is a lack of toilets and clean water. There has been no cholera in Haiti for decades, so people don’t know how to defend themselves against it.
We are concerned that 200 people in this country will soon fall ill with cholera, or even more, said Nigel Fisher, UN coordinator for aid to Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, on Monday in New York.
On Monday, in two cities – Hinche and Cap Haitien – local people attacked soldiers of the UN stabilization mission with stones. There were violent clashes between thousands of demonstrators and the police and UN troops. Two people were killed and at least 12 injured. Previously, protesters accused UN troops in Nepal of bringing cholera to Haiti and demanded their departure. They accused their own government of inaction in the fight against the epidemic. (PAP)