Florida officials announced on Wednesday that a Florida resident who returned from Haiti had been diagnosed with cholera. She visited a family in the north of the country, where an epidemic broke out a month ago, which has already resulted in the death of over XNUMX people.
The patient’s life is not in danger, and good sanitation ensures that the risk of an outbreak in the United States is minimal. Possible cases of disease in other parts of the region are being investigated.
The first case of cholera was detected in the Dominican Republic on Tuesday. As a result, stringent sanitary controls were introduced at border inspection posts between the country and Haiti.
Meanwhile, aid workers in Haiti warned Wednesday that major clashes between demonstrators and police and UN mission troops on Monday and Tuesday made it difficult for patients to get to hospitals and halted the delivery of aid and drugs.
The riots took place in the north of the country in Cap-Haitien and in the central part of Haiti in Hinche. Two people died in the clashes and a dozen were injured. Demonstrators accused UN mission soldiers in Nepal of bringing cholera to their country.
Things were still tense in Cap-Haitien on Wednesday. The main streets were blocked, and in the suburbs about 200 people were throwing stones at the hospital, the UN mission in Haiti said.
Aid must reach the sick as soon as possible, and these riots are delaying that, said Julie Schindall, spokeswoman for the international humanitarian organization Oxfam, explaining that every hour counts in the case of cholera, which can lead to death from dehydration in just a few hours.
The planes that were to reach Cap-Haitien were also canceled, among others medical personnel as well as drugs, said Imogen Wall of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
During the riots, the warehouse of the World Food Program was looted and then burned, according to the Reuters agency.
The Haitian health ministry said on Wednesday that 1110 people have died of cholera since mid-October (including 46 in the capital), and 18 patients have been admitted to hospitals. (PAP)