The cholera virus, which has been devastating Haiti since October, is spreading faster than initially planned and will linger in the country for at least a year, said Nigel Fisher, senior UN representative, on Tuesday.
Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) previously assumed that 6 people would develop diarrhea caused by poor sanitation within 200 months. people. Currently, according to verified forecasts, this number of infections will occur in 3 months. This means the epidemic is spreading faster, explained Fisher in a conference call with the United Nations.
He added that, according to medical experts, cholera will continue for at least a year, leading to literally hundreds of thousands of cases during this time.
Stopping the cholera epidemic, he explained, is practically impossible because it is contagious; People with cholera sometimes only develop symptoms after a few days, and during this time they can travel everywhere.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic – in mid-October this year – 1 people have died of cholera, reports Reuters. However, the actual balance of the virus victims may be closer to two thousand than one, because there is still no data from inaccessible areas of the country, Fisher pointed out. According to him, the number of infected with cholera is around 344-60, not 70, according to official sources.
Fisher called on aid organizations to significantly increase their efforts to stop the disease, including by distributing chlorine tablets for water decontamination and increasing the number of medical centers. (PAP)