THE DEATH toll arising from a cholera outbreak in Haiti has slowed in recent days, according to health authorities on the island but humanitarian agencies remain on high alert.
Following several days in which fatalities from the disease had amounted to dozens each day, only six deaths were recorded between Sunday and yesterday. All took place in the worst affected area of Artibonite in central Haiti.
“We have registered a diminishing in numbers of deaths and of hospitalised people in the most critical areas . . . The tendency is that it is stabilising, without being able to say that we have reached a peak,” said Gabriel Thimote of Haiti’s health department.
More than 250 people have died since the disease was detected more than a week ago in Artibonite and another central province. Health authorities have reported more than 3,000 cases.
The UN, Haitian officials and aid agencies have launched a major effort to try to contain the outbreak.
“We must gear up for a serious epidemic, even though we hope it won’t happen,” UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Haiti Nigel Fisher said.
The country’s health minister has urged people to wash their hands with soap, avoid eating raw vegetables, boil all food and drinking water, and avoid bathing in and drinking from rivers.
Medical personnel and aid workers have been distributing water purification tablets, oral rehydration sachets, and hygiene kits.
“Everybody is on high alert,” said Dominic MacSorley, operations director with Concern, who arrived in Haiti at the weekend.
“The focus is very much on preventative measures right now, but there an underlying fear and sense of dread that the situation could worsen.”
Five cholera cases were reported in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, heightening concerns the disease could spread throughout the city’s sprawling tent slums where about 1.3 million earthquake survivors live.
However, government officials have said that all five were apparently infected outside Port-au-Prince. Health authorities hope the deadly disease can be confined to the rural areas where the outbreak originated.
The outbreak has forced Irish charity Haven, which was due to bring 300 volunteers to Haiti last Saturday, to cancel its trip.
Haven, which runs a “Build It Week” twice a year, said its self-contained construction site is located 40km (25 miles) from the site of the outbreak. “We are incredibly disappointed,” said founder Leslie Buckley. “We cannot put the health and safety of any of our volunteers at risk. We must focus our efforts on responding to the current crisis and preventing the further spread of the infection.”