544 Haitians Dead in Cholera Epidemic

Although there were reports that the recent cholera epidemic was reaching the end of its two week, killer sweep across the poverty-stricken island nation, deaths continue to mount in Haiti. 8,000 cholera patients are in hospitals, with that number expected to grow.

The majority of the cases have been in rural areas where there is little access to clean water or sanitation facilities. Heavy rains and flooding from Hurricane Tomas last week are feared to have contaminated already risky water supplies and as a result more cholera cases are expected.

Now, health care workers worry that the disease, which can kill in just 12 hours from the onset of symptoms in the untreated children and elderly, will spread to Port-au-Prince. After 10 months since the devastating earthquake, 1.3 million homeless still live in densely packed, tent-slum complexes, at high risk for a cholera outbreak. There have already been 30 suspected cases in the capital.

Although the disease can be easily treated with orally-delivered hydration and in particularly severe cases with intravenous re-hydration and antibiotics, contaminated water will continue to infect and kill Haitians who do not have easy access to health care.

As long as basic sanitation and access to clean drinking water are not in place, Haitians will have to add a long and painful experience with cholera to their already overflowing list of concerns.