A young woman lies on a street outside a hospital in northern Haiti on October 21, 2010, amid a cholera epidemic. Last Updated: 12 hours 48 minutes ago
Aid agencies are rushing extra medical and hygiene supplies to Haiti, which is battling its first cholera epidemic in decades.
Health workers say the confirmed death toll is nearing 200 people, and more than 2,300 others are infected.
Imogen Wall, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, says the epidemic has spread in the central part of the country.
Efforts are underway to try to stop the disease from spreading to the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Officials fear it may reach the tent camps where hundreds of thousands of survivors of January's devastating earthquake are living.
Aid groups and the government are bringing medical and relief supplies, including water purification tablets.
Cholera is a bacterial infection spread through contaminated water, which causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting that can lead to dehydration and death within hours.
It was not present in Haiti before the earthquake, but experts had warned that conditions were ripe for disease to strike in areas with limited access to clean water. (From ABC News)
Health workers say the confirmed death toll is nearing 200 people, and more than 2,300 others are infected.
Imogen Wall, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, says the epidemic has spread in the central part of the country.
Efforts are underway to try to stop the disease from spreading to the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Officials fear it may reach the tent camps where hundreds of thousands of survivors of January's devastating earthquake are living.
Aid groups and the government are bringing medical and relief supplies, including water purification tablets.
Cholera is a bacterial infection spread through contaminated water, which causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting that can lead to dehydration and death within hours.
It was not present in Haiti before the earthquake, but experts had warned that conditions were ripe for disease to strike in areas with limited access to clean water. (From ABC News)
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