Haiti at risk of fresh cholera outbreak after tropical storm Isaac hits island nation

Aug 28 2012

"Rain-battered Haiti is at risk of a fresh cholera outbreak" after "[t]ropical storm Isaac ripped through the impoverished Caribbean island [Saturday]," children's charity Plan International warns, according to AlertNet (8/26). "The 400,000 people living in camps in the capital Port-au-Prince, such as Jean Marie Vincent, as well as those living in towns to the south of the island, including Les Cayes and Jacmel are among those at risk, following heavy rains and flooding," Oxfam writes in a press release (Brinicombe, 8/26). "With a reported total of 10 deaths for the island of Hispaniola, which is shared by [Haiti and the Dominican Republic], the scale of devastation was less than many people had feared," but "the capital and countryside of disaster-prone Haiti did suffer sporadic flooding, fallen poles and scores of toppled tents that housed people who lost their homes in the massive 2010 earthquake," the Associated Press/Washington Post reports. "Across Haiti, the number of people evacuated due to flooding rose over the weekend," the news service notes, adding, "The World Food Program had distributed two days of food to 8,300 of the people who had left their houses for 18 camps" (Blanco, 8/26). "Aid groups have prepared clean water and hygiene kits to help prevent the spread of cholera, which Haiti has struggled to control since the earthquake," according to VOA News (8/25).