Cholera death toll in Haiti stands at 1,415

Port-au-Prince, Agency
The death toll in the cholera epidemic ravaging Haiti stands at 1,415, at latest count, and a total of 60,240 people have received medical treatment for the disease since it was first detected on Oct. 19, health authorities announced Tuesday.

Artibonite, where the outbreak began, remains the province with the most deaths, 707, followed by Nord, 220; Ouest, 203, including 95 in Port-au-Prince; Plateau Central, 139; and Nord-Ouest, with 122.

Haitian officials' biggest fear is that cholera will become rampant in the capital, where hundreds of thousands of people have been living in refugee camps since the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed some 300,000 people and left more than 1 million others homeless.

The epidemic has spread to the neighboring Dominican Republic, where four cases have been detected and authorities have reinforced monitoring at the border in an attempt to halt its advance.

In Geneva, U.N. agencies on Tuesday lamented the fact that only $6.8 million of the $164 million requested a week ago from the international community to fight the disease has been received, calling it "a negligible level" of support in a case such as this and urging countries to send help on an urgent basis.