Aid Workers Brace for Cholera Outbreak in Haiti’s Capital

Treatment centres have been set up across Port-au-Prince after several cases were confirmed in the city.

Health officials are warning that the overcrowded city is ripe for an outbreak of the deadly disease. Half of the city’s 3 million people are living in filthy tent camps along open sewers after January’s devastating earthquake, and have no access to clean water. Hundreds of people in the capital are already believed to have contracted cholera, and the disease has killed over 580 people across the country since last month. Before that time there had never been a reported case of cholera in Haiti, sparking fears among the local population that aid workers were spreading, rather than treating, the disease. Cholera is treatable with clean water mixed with salt and sugar.