In total, 38,262 people may have contracted the disease, of whom almost 9,000 are under five years of age, and 2,558 have been confirmed infected.

Since the beginning of October, when the epidemic began in the capital city, 32,872 people required medical assistance and 428 died in hospitals, while 212 died in the communes.

Last week, the Ministry of Health announced the mobilization of rapid intervention teams to stop the spread of cholera, a bacterial disease associated with contaminated food or water which causes acute diarrhea and vomiting capable of causing dehydration.

The Ministry organized accelerated training, updating and coaching sessions for the teams to improve community management and organize response and prevention activities in the Artibonite and North departments.

The training aimed to supervise response teams in the regions and consolidate participants’ knowledge of the Ministry’s protocols, in addition to equipping specialists with techniques to monitor and evaluate acute diarrhea management centers and the progression of cholera in the communities.

The reappearance of the disease, three years after the last recorded case, occurs in the midst of a severe social, political, economic and security crisis, that limits the access of thousands of citizens to medical assistance.

In 2010, after the devastating earthquake that claimed more than 200,000 lives, the epidemic spread throughout the country and caused the death of more than 10,000 people, according to official data.

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