I've been blogging for some years now about the apparently increasing impact of North Atlantic hurricanes, and in particular their effect on one of the poorest nations on the planet, Haiti. Today Hurricane Irene has left Haiti in its wake, and according to the United Nations this time around:
The BBC reports this evening that the cholera outbreak in Haiti is now entrenched in the capital Port-au-Prince:
Doctors are treating 73 people for the disease, amid fears that it could spread across the quake-hit city. Dozens of suspected cases are also being investigated in Port-au-Prince, which has feared an outbreak since October.
At long last the mainstream British media are doing some in depth reporting. Here's Channel 4's Jon Snow on the ground in Haiti, including an interview with Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive:
This morning Reuters reports that the death toll from the cholera epidemic is now over 500:
Amid widespread relief that the hurricane largely spared crowded camps in the Haitian capital housing 1.3 million quake survivors, the international humanitarian operation was turning its attention back to the two-week-old epidemic, which has killed just over 500 people and sickened more than 7,000.
According to Reuters this morning the death toll in Haiti as a direct consequence of Hurricane Tomas has reached seven. Haitian President René Préval said from the presidential palace that:
Now that, relatively speaking, Haiti has escaped the danger, we have to continue to be vigilant.
According to Imogen Wall, spokeswoman for the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.