The United Nations (UN) launched an appeal to donor countries, as well as international and regional organizations, to gather 164 million dollars in order to fuel efforts in containing the cholera epidemic in Haiti.
UN representatives say that the money is needed badly and fast, before efforts are outrun by the outbreak. If the sum would be put together, it would be used to add more doctors to the teams working in Haiti, as well as shipping in more medicine and water purification equipment that would assist in the treatment of 200,000 people that might soon suffer from disease symptoms.
The cholera outbreak has already killed 724 people and, unless quickly and efficiently contained, it might continue to spread for another year. Since the outbreak began last month, the disease has infected more than 11,000 people in five out of the ten districts of the country. The capital Port-au-Prince reported ten deaths and 278 confirmed cases.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), the epidemic is not going to end any time soon and they expect that 200,000 more people will be affected by the disease in the next six to 12 months.
The current fatality rate of 6.5 percent is way higher than it should be under normal circumstances, warn WHO specialists. The fast rate at which the disease is spreading, as well as the high death rate, come from the fact that the country has not experienced infections with these bacteria before, making the population highly sensitive to getting infected, as their immune system is not equipped to fight it. Furthermore, once it finds its way into water, the bacterium spreads fast and easy, and transmits to people who most times do not show any symptoms.
WHO experts say that an investigation into the origin of the bacterium will be made at some point, but that the current priority is to contain its spreading.
