Haiti’s cholera death toll rises to 136 as outbreak gets ‘worse and worse every day’
A man walks through the streets of Port au Prince after the water level rose in the middle of the night, forcing the closure of several beaches from Saturday, May 16, 2018. A man walks through the streets of Port au Prince after the water level rose in the middle of the night, forcing the closure of several beaches from Saturday, May 16, 2018. Photo: Edgard Andrade, Associated Press Photo: Edgard Andrade, Associated Press Image 1 of / 30 Caption Close Haiti’s cholera death toll rises to 136 as outbreak gets ‘worse and worse every day’ 1 / 30 Back to Gallery
When the water level rose on a busy street in Port-au-Prince on Saturday during the height of the country’s cholera outbreak, at least 136 people were dead or in critical condition, making it the worst outbreak in 20 years.
Since then, the death toll has risen every day. The U.N. said at least 14,000 people are infected and more than 130,000 have been put into quarantine, affecting some of the world’s poorest countries, as well as the Dominican Republic, where 1,500 people died last month.
The health ministry said by Sunday that 130,500 people have been quarantined.
And officials from the United Nations, the International Organization for Migration, and the World Health Organization are desperately trying to get the word out about how to avoid cholera infections, as well as how to contain the outbreak once it gets out of hand.
“Cholera is a major issue on our island. We call it the silent killer,” said Xavier Pons, who runs a business that employs 2,400 people in Port-au-Prince. “And once it gets out of control, it can destroy families. It is destroying the country. It is absolutely destroying our country.”
In Haiti, the outbreak has grown worse and worse every day, according to doctors and health officials.
To complicate matters, the U.S. government and other international agencies are struggling to determine what is happening along the country’s rivers and the country’s porous border with the Dominican Republic, the source of the disease. The U.S. embassy in