With 138 dead, official says Haiti cholera outbreak will likely worsen

Summary:

A deadly cholera outbreak is plaguing the Haitian city of Artibonite (north of the country’s capital of Port-Au-Prince), health officials say that the disease has killed 138 people in the last 48hours since the first was reported and the outbreak will get worse. More people are showing symptoms and seeking help at clinics and hospitals. One of the main Hospitals, St. Nicholas Hospital is overcrowded with patients. “Some people waited 24 hours or more to get help outside the hospital, many of them on stretchers” said Terry Snow, Haiti director for the nonprofit Youth With a Mission. After recent heavy rains area, the banks of the Artibonite river overflow and flood the area. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Cholera is caused by a bacterial infection of the intestine and, in severe cases, is characterized by diarrhea, vomiting and leg cramps. In such cases, rapid loss of body fluids can lead to dehydration and shock. "Without treatment, death can occur within hours". A person can get cholera by drinking water or eating food contaminated with the bacteria. During epidemics, the source of the contamination is often the feces of an infected person, and infections can spread rapidly in areas where there is poor sewage treatment and a lack of clean drinking water, according to the CDC.

Analysis:

It saddens me to hear that Haiti is going another through horrid event. The country is still in recovering efforts from January’s earthquake and now this. Cholera is a highly communicable disease, it only takes one infected person to soil a local water source, and the whole village could be wiped out in a matter of days. Children and elderly are especially vulnerable because of their weaken immune systems. I am very sure that these clinics and hospitals do not have enough doctors and nurses to care of all these patients in an adequate amount of time. With cholera, time is very important, because the patient will get dehydrated very quickly and they need clean fluids. With all these disasters and outbreaks, how can a developing country move forward? It is good to hear that they are receiving some humanitarian aid; some areas are getting filters to purify the water. My fear is that this outbreak will become an epidemic.

reported by: Greg Botelho
CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/10/21/haiti.cholera/index.html?hpt=T2