The cholera outbreak in Haiti has worsened. The disease has killed 1,110 people and 18,383 have been hospitalized to date. Now the intestinal illness is branching out beyond the borders of the small island nation.
In Florida, a Collier County woman who traveled to visit family in Haiti’s disease-stricken Artibonite Valley has become the first local case of cholera transmitted from the beleaguered country to America. Last week, the state health department issued an advisory requiring Florida doctors and hospitals to quickly test patients showing cholera symptoms. Common symptoms of cholera include profuse, watery diarrhea, dehydration and fever. Authorities anticipate that new cases will occur in Florida because the state has about 241,000 Haitian-born residents, many of whom travel back and forth between the countries frequently, particularly since the Jan. 12 earthquake.
According to estimates from the United Nations, more than 200,000 Haitians could contract the disease. Transmissions have increased since the country was hit with heavy rains after a recent hurricane.
The Dominican Republic has recorded its first case of cholera. The individual is a migrant who had recently returned from Haiti. As a result, Dominican authorities have stepped up border controls and health checks to try to contain the cholera outbreak.
Haiti needs $163.9 million in aid over the next year to combat the epidemic, the first cholera outbreak in the country in a century.
–torrance stephens, ph.d.
