Officials suspect at least 120 cases of cholera in Haiti capital

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI - Health officials said Monday that they are examining at least 120 suspected cases of cholera in Haiti's capital, the most significant indication yet that the epidemic might have spread from outlying areas to threaten as many as 3 million people.

Vibrio cholera bacteria has already killed at least 544 people in Haiti, and Health Ministry Executive Director Gabriel Timothee said that scientists are testing samples from patients in Port-au-Prince.

About half of the estimated 2.5 million to 3 million people in Port-au-Prince are living in tents or under tarps in easily flooded encampments since their homes were destroyed in the Jan. 12 earthquake.

Timothee said many of the hospitalized patients are believed to have recently arrived from parts of Haiti such as the Artibonite Valley, where the epidemic was first registered and has done its most ferocious damage. More than 6,400 of the known 8,138 cases to date have been in the agricultural region, clustered around the Artibonite River.

At least 114 of the people suspected of having the disease in the capital are in the Cite Soleil slum, the expansive oceanside shantytown at the capital's far northeastern edge and its closest point to the valley.

Since its discovery in late October, the disease has spread to half of Haiti's 10 administrative regions, or departments. More than 200 people have been hospitalized in the West department, where Port-au-Prince is located, but no cases of cholera have yet been confirmed within the limits of the capital city.

Cholera had never been documented in Haiti before its appearance last month.

It is suspected of infecting tens of thousands of people in little more than three weeks. About 4 percent of thousands hospitalized have died, most from extreme shock brought on by dehydration.

Officials are concerned that floods triggered by Hurricane Tomas on Friday and Saturday could exacerbate the spread of the disease, which is transmitted through the consumption of fecal matter contained in contaminated water or food. The release of a dam on the Artibonite River caused the infected waterway to swell Monday, but there were no reports of major flooding.

- Associated Press