Haiti records the lowest number of cholera patients since the outbreak in 2010

Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe, the UN Special Representative to Haiti and the UN Senior Coordinator for cholera response vowed to press on with intensified efforts to eliminate the disease from the country as reports from the first months of 2014 reflected the lowest number of cases and cholera-related deaths since the beginning of the epidemic.

After the High-Level Committee for the Elimination of Cholera in Haiti met for the first time in Port-au-Prince yesterday to discuss efforts against the disease, from operational strategies to sensitization campaigns, Lamothe said that the Martelly administration’s activities and those of the UN and other partners to combat cholera are bearing fruit.

According to the latest figures from April, concerted Haitian and international efforts have succeeded in significantly reducing the toll of the epidemic. The number of cases has been reduced by 75 percent in the first trimester of 2014 compared to the same period last year, and fatality rates are below the 1 percent target set by the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

In spite of that progress, Lamothe said cholera continued to be an emergency that required the development of all possible strategies to eliminate the disease in Haiti.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Haiti, Sandra Honoré, emphasized the determination of the UN to continue to support the Haitian Government’s efforts to improve public health and access for the population to drinking water and sanitation.

Honoré referred to the upcoming launch of the total sanitation campaign which will allow schools and health centers in targeted communities to have adequate water and sanitation infrastructure.

Haiti’s 10-year plan for the elimination of cholera requires US$2.2 billion through large-scale development of public health and sanitation infrastructure.

Source: UN News Center