Haiti cholera toll rises to 2,591
By IANSTuesday, December 21, 2010
Port-au-Prince, Dec 22 (IANS/EFE) The toll in the deadly cholera epidemic in Haiti has risen to 2,591, officials said.
Since the cholera epidemic struck the poverty-stricken Caribbean country in mid-October, 121,518 people have been affected by the outbreak - of whom 63,711 were hospitalised, according to a latest report from the health ministry released Tuesday.
The epidemic has spread to all of Haiti’s 10 provinces, but the hardest hit is Artibonite, where over 800 people have died.
The disease which broke out in neighbouring Dominican Republic, first appeared in the country in October in Mirebalais city.
A French medical study said the outbreak was caused by human waste being dumped in a river by a camp of Nepalese soldiers, members of the UN Mission for the Stabilisation of Haiti (Minustah).
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that he will form a group of scientific experts to investigate the origin of the cholera epidemic in Haiti.
–IANS/EFE
