Deadly disease in Haiti claims over hundred lives

Oct 22, 2010 |

Associated Press

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St. Marc: An outbreak of severe diarrhea in rural central Haiti has killed at least 135 people and sickened hundreds more who overwhelmed a crowded hospital on Thursday seeking treatment.

Health workers suspected the cause was cholera, but were awaiting tests.

Hundreds of patients lay on blankets in a parking lot outside a hospital here. As rain began to fall in the afternoon, nurses rushed to carry them inside.

Doctors were testing for cholera, typhoid and other illnesses in the deadliest outbreak of disease since a January earthquake that killed as many as 300,000 people.

Catherine Huck, deputy country director for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that Haiti’s Health Ministry had recorded 135 deaths and more than 1,000 people infected.

“What we know is that people have diarrhea, and they are vomiting, and can go quickly if they are not seen in time,” she added.

The president of the Haitian Medical Association, Dr. Surena Claude, said the cause appeared to be cholera, but that that had not been confirmed.

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