Haiti cholera death toll rises to over 2,000

Haiti cholera death toll rises to over 2,000

2010-12-07 08:28:28 GMT+7 (ICT)

PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI (BNO NEWS) -- Haiti's health ministry on Monday said that 2,071 Haitians have died due to the cholera outbreak since the outbreak began at the end of October.

In addition, health officials informed that 43,243 individuals are hospitalized two months after the disease surfaced in the devastated Caribbean island-nation. The latest report indicated that about 91,000 have been infected.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday called on the international community to provide immediate massive aid to Haiti to fight the cholera epidemic, warning that hundreds of thousands of lives are at risk.

"Clearly, it will continue to spread, unfortunately," Ban told an informal meeting of the General Assembly, noting that the epidemic could affect as many as 650,000 people in the next six months.

"One thing is clear," Ban said. "Without a massive and immediate international response, we will be overwhelmed. The lives of hundreds of thousands of people are at risk. And it is up to us to act, with maximum speed and full resources."

The UN World Health Organization and its regional arm, the Pan-American Health Organization, estimate that an additional 350 doctors, 2,000 nurses and 2,200 support staff will be required over the next three months.

Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported on Friday that 21 million water-purifying aquatabs have or are being distributed along with 1.7 million bars of soap, 900,000 oral re hydration kits and 4.4 metric tons of chlorine.

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