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The World Health Organization is pitching a tent to treat cholera in Haiti and will demand an oral vaccine to fight the disease, which has unexpectedly returned to a country crippled by a gang blockade, a WHO spokesman said.
The disease, which killed about 10,000 people in a 2010 outbreak, was blamed on UN peacekeepers in Haiti. The United Nations apologized in 2016 for the outbreak, but took no responsibility. The last case was reported three years ago.
The Caribbean country has reported at least seven deaths so far, and the World Health Organization has warned that some early cases may have gone undetected and more are expected.
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“It is very important now to get assistance on the ground as soon as possible,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindemeier told a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday. He described a “difficult mix” surrounding the spread of the disease, with cases emerging in gang-controlled areas where testing or treatment has been severely hampered.
“Given the current humanitarian situation and health situation, and gang-controlled areas with little access to control, testing or even assistance, we should expect unfortunate cases to increase and rise.”
Lindmeier added that some hospitals had already started closing due to fuel shortages and staff inaccessibility.
He said WHO and partners were setting up cholera treatment centres in tents and providing them with medicines and equipment.
It is unclear how the cholera returned to Haiti.
The outbreak occurred in an impoverished area called Sun City on the outskirts of the capital, where a bloody turf war broke out in July, leaving some residents stranded without food and water. Clean water is essential to stop the spread of cholera.
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Controlling the outbreak will depend on ending the gang blockade, the United Nations Deputy Special Representative for Haiti, the Integrated Office of the Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator said in a statement.
“Without an immediate release of fuel for humanitarian purposes, the response to this crisis will be limited and the impact of the outbreak will intensify,” it said.
“Cite Soleil, who reported the first case, has been banned from the United Nations and international actors for several weeks.”
The entrance to the Varreux fuel terminal, which remains blocked by trenches and containers, called for an agreement on Twitter to create a humanitarian corridor “to allow the supply of hospitals, water treatment centres and telecommunications”.
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