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An outbreak of severe diarrhea in rural central Haiti has killed at least 135 people and sickened hundreds more who overwhelmed a crowded hospital Thursday seeking treatment.

Hundreds of patients lay on blankets in a parking lot outside St. Nicholas hospital in the port city of St. Marc with IVs in their arms for rehydration. As rain began to fall in the afternoon, nurses rushed to carry them inside.

Doctors were testing for cholera, typhoid and other illnesses in the Caribbean country’s deadliest outbreak since a January earthquake that killed as many as 300,000 people.

“What we know is that people have diarrhea, and they are vomiting, and [they] can go quickly if they are not seen in time,” said Catherine Huck, country deputy for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs. She said doctors were still awaiting lab results to pinpoint the cause.

The president of the Haitian Medical Association, Claude Surena, said his unofficial count based on information from doctors and hospitals in the region indicated as many as 135 people had died and 1,500 were infected. He said the cause appeared to be cholera, but that had not been confirmed by the government.

“The concern is that it could go from one place to another place, and it could affect more people or move from one region to another one,” he said.

Cholera, a bacterial infection that spreads through contaminated water, causes severe diarrhea and vomiting that can lead to dehydration and death within hours. Treatment involves administering a salt- and sugar-based rehydration serum.

Drank from public canal

The sick at St. Nicholas hospital have come from across Haiti’s rural Artibonite region, which did not experience significant damage in the Jan. 12 quake but has absorbed thousands of refugees from the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince, 70 kilometres south of St. Marc. Government figures list a total of 54 people dead and 619 ill, said Yolaine Surena, a co-ordinator for Haiti’s civil protection department.

Some patients said they drank water from a public canal, while others said they bought purified water. All complained of symptoms including fever, vomiting and severe diarrhea.

“I ran to the bathroom four times last night vomiting,” said 70-year-old Belismene Jean Baptiste.

Trucks loaded with medical supplies, including rehydration salts, were to be sent from Port-au-Prince to the hospital, said Jessica DuPlessis, a UN spokeswoman. Doctors at the hospital said they also needed more personnel to handle the flood of patients.

Elyneth Tranckil was among dozens of relatives standing outside the hospital gate as new patients arrived near death.

“Police have blocked the entry to the hospital, so I can’t get in to see my wife,” Tranckil said.

The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince issued an advisory urging people to drink only bottled or boiled water and eat only food that has been thoroughly cooked.

By cbc.ca

People receive rehydration serum in the parking lot of the St. Nicholas hospital in Saint Marc, Haiti, on Thursday. Health officials say an outbreak of severe diarrhea has killed at least 54 and sickened hundreds more. (Dieu Nalio Chery/Associated Press)

A fresh cholera outbreak has killed 20 people and left 200 others infected in northern Nigeria’s Adamawa State in the past week, a senior health official said Wednesday.

“We have recorded a resurgence of cholera in four local government areas in the northern part of the state in the last week which has claimed 20 lives with about 200 others infected by the disease,” Zainab Baba Kwanci, Adamawa State Health Commissioner told AFP.

“The resurgence is pathetic and we are doing everything that is necessary to contain the situation, including the provision of drugs and vaccines as well as health personnel to the affected areas,” he added.

The latest deaths take to 169 the number of those killed by the disease in four northern states — Adamawa, Jigawa, Taraba and Borno — in the past three months.

Cholera is a water-borne disease and can also be transmitted by food that has been in contact with sewage.

It causes serious diarrhoea and vomiting leading to dehydration. With a short incubation period, it can be fatal if not treated in time. Hard money training