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Haiti’s Ministry of Public Health and Population reported Tuesday that cases by the current cholera outbreak 32 rose, with 266 suspected cases and 18 confirmed deaths, according to data compiled in coordination with the Department of Epidemiology, Laboratories and Research.
The national health entity added that 215 people suspected of contagion are hospitalized.
The largest number of cases have been detected in Port-au-Prince, the capital (109) and Cité Soleil (132).
Earlier, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization (WHO), Margaret Harris, when answering questions about the development of the disease on the Caribbean island at a press conference, emphasized: “We are very, very concerned.”
Notorious protests erupted in the capital on Monday as Haitians called for Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign after several weeks of shortages.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which also on Monday reported the increase in cases and the need for sanitary conditions for those hospitalized, maintains 2 hospitals in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince that are struggling to handle the increase in the number of patients arriving with symptoms of cholera.
“The current situation that we see every day is that a group of people with symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting are arriving. The problem here is that we do not have the capacity to receive these numbers of people. We have 22 cabins, we need more, so the conditions here are not right,” he told AP Dr. Florence Dennuela, who works at the MSF Emergency Center in Turgeau, the capital.
In Haiti, a cholera outbreak in 2010 killed almost 10,000 people, shortly after the earthquake that hit the country.
US assistance
Also on Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre referred to the situation in Haiti, highlighting the assistance that Washington is providing “on the ground” to deal with the outbreak.
“Right now our staff are on the ground in Haiti, working alongside Haitian relief forces and NGOs, helping to contain this cholera outbreak and provide care to those in need, as we have done since 2021,” said Jean-Pierre. at a press conference. “Our highest priority is to ensure that vital humanitarian assistance reaches the Haitian people, including critical medical support to stop the cholera outbreak.”
In Photos | Anti-government protests continue in Haiti
Since August, anti-government protests have been taking place over rising fuel and food prices in Haiti, while gang violence continues.
Likewise, the spokeswoman for the US government expressed the commitment of the Biden Administration to security in Haiti, a country that in recent weeks has experienced a wave of violent protestsalthough he avoided commenting on a possible dispatch of US troops, as requested by the government of Prime Minister Henry.
“The US has been reviewing the Haitian government’s proposal in coordination with our international partners and we are working to determine how we can hold accountable those responsible for the violence,” Jean-Pierre said. “It’s something we’ve received and we’re going to review.”
[Con la colaboración de Yeny García, periodista de VOA en Miami, e información de Reuters y AP]
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