BOGOTA, (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The number of Haitians infected by cholera has risen more than 300 percent in the past year as early rains, poor sanitation, and a lack of funding means the impoverished Caribbean nation struggles to stem the disease, the United Nations said.
From January to April this year, 14,226 Haitians were infected with cholera, a 306 percent increase from the same period last year, with the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince hardest hit.
“An upsurge in the last quarter of 2014 continues to affect Port-au-Prince’s metropolitan area, illustrating the shift of the epidemic from rural to urban areas,” said the latest U.N. humanitarian agency (OCHA) report on Haiti.
