Death toll now stands at 2,761 in Haiti cholera epidemic

Port-au-Prince, Agency
The death toll from the cholera epidemic that broke out in Haiti in mid-October now stands at 2,761, according to a bulletin released Wednesday by the health ministry here.

According to information posted on the ministry's Web page, 130,534 people have been infected with cholera, of whom 79,865 have been hospitalized, although 68,932 of those have been released.

Cholera, which had been eradicated in Haiti until its reappearance in October, has spread to all 10 of the country's provinces, but the most seriously affected is the northwestern region of Artibonite, where 813 people have died from the disease.

The illness, which also has infected 120 people in the neighboring Dominican Republic, appeared for the first time in October in the central city of Mirebalais.

The origin of the disease is still not entirely clear, but a French medical study asserts that it resulted when Nepalese soldiers participating in the U.N. Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti, or Minustah, dumped human waste from their camp into a river out of which Mirebalais residents drew their drinking water.

The epidemic comes as Haiti is still struggling to recover from the Jan. 12 earthquake that left roughly 300,000 dead and more than a million people homeless.