Suspected cholera cases on the rise in hurricane-ravaged Haiti: WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday that 477 suspected cases of cholera have been recorded in Haiti's Grand'Anse and South departments over the past four days.

"WHO expects an important upsurge in cholera cases after Hurricane Matthew given the context of flooding and the storm's impact on water and sanitation infrastructure," WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told the press here.

"So far 75 percent of cholera treatment facilities that have been assessed were destroyed or damaged in the most affected departments," she said.

WHO plans to send a million doses of cholera vaccine to Haiti, whose cholera epidemic has yet to be eradicated since its outbreak in 2010.

Pending discussions with partners and the Haitian government, these would be used either in a single dose campaign or the classic double dose strategy.

While offering longer protection, the double dose plan would only protect 500,000 people from the water-borne disease.

Hurricane Matthew hit the small Caribbean nation on Oct. 4, resulting in over 470 deaths so far and 1.4 million people needing humanitarian assistance.

"I have never seen anything like this, whole towns have been erased, we can see that most houses and buildings have been wiped off the map or have been seriously damaged... people are devastated," said UN Development Programme's Country Director Yvonne Helle via telephone from Haiti. Endit