Cholera outbreak takes 'a dramatic turn for the worse'

[bcholmes]

BOSTON - On a press conference call earlier today, Partners In Health's Chief of Mission in Haiti Dr. Louise Ivers updated the media on the status of the ongoing cholera outbreak in Haiti and PIH’s response. She reported that the situation has taken a dramatic turn for the worse, with clear signs that the outbreak has spread to the crowded slums and settlement camps in Port-au-Prince. According to the latest report from the Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population, a total of 12,303 people have been hospitalized and 796 have died since the outbreak began.

On Monday, Partners In Health and our Haitian partner organization Zanmi Lasante (PIH/ZL) saw seven cases with classic clinical symptoms of cholera at Parc Jean-Marie Vincent, the largest of the four settlement camps in Port-au-Prince where we have been providing medical care since the January 12 earthquake. Since then dozens of additional cases have been treated at the Cholera Treatment Unit (CTU) in the camp, many of whom had come from the slums of Port-au-Prince outside the camp.

Meanwhile, PIH/ZL continued to see increasing numbers of patients with cholera in the Artibonite and Central Departments outside the capital. A total of 7,159 patients have been hospitalized in our facilities in the Artibonite/Central Plateau. Dr. Ivers reported that flooding caused by Hurricane Tomas led to a sharp increase in the number of cholera patients at the hospital in St. Marc, from 125 cases a day to over 200. A growing number of cases is also being reported from communities in the Upper Artibonite, outside the area around St.-Marc where the outbreak began in October. PIH operates the hospital in St.-Marc and two other facilities in the Lower Artibonite in partnership with the MSPP.

— Partners in Health announcement

Thanks again, MINUSTAH.