Haiti cholera death toll rises to over 1,000 as protests erupt

[News_Editor]

Haiti cholera death toll rises to over 1,000 as protests erupt

2010-11-17 01:16:14 GMT+7 (ICT)

PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI (BNO NEWS) -- Haiti's health ministry on Monday said that up to Sunday 1,034 Haitians have died due to the cholera outbreak, an increase of 117 deaths since the last official toll announced during the weekend.

In addition, health officials informed that 16,800 individuals are hospitalized nearly a month after the disease surfaced in the devastated Caribbean island-nation. The latest report indicated that about 14,000 people were hospitalized.

On Monday, many demonstrators protested the presence of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah) in the northern city of Cap-Haitien. Residents are blaming the UN mission for the cholera out break.

The demonstrators blocked the streets with barriers of burning tires and threw stones at Minustan vehicles. Several protesters suffered bullet wounds in incidents that exploded when the UN mission intervened along the Haitian police.

Political and social sectors accused Minustah for causing the cholera epidemic as the Nepalese contingent dumped waste close to a river in the northern province of Artibone, where the outbreak began.

Minustah have denied being the cause of the outbreak and assured that its waste material was disposed correctly. The Nepalese soldiers are believed to have brought the virus after a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified the strain of cholera affecting Haiti as one native to South Asia that has never been seen before in the Western Hemisphere.

The cholera epidemic is the first major health crisis for Haiti since January's devastating earthquake, which killed more than 220,000 in Haiti's central region, leaving around 1.5 million people homeless. Many months later, more than 1 million people still live in crowded and poorly-conditioned camps.

Most of the victims are from the rural areas of the Bas Artibonite region and in Saint Marc, located north of the Haitian capital Port-Au-Prince. Aid workers are struggling to contain what appears to be a widespread epidemic.

Last Friday, the United Nations appealed for $164 million to support Haiti's effort to fight the deadly cholera outbreak. The UN and partners launched the Cholera Inter-Sector Response Strategy that will manage the funds for getting additional doctors, medicines and water purification equipment.

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