UN agencies help authorities deal with extensive cholera outbreak in Haiti

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- UN agencies and nongovernmental organizations are helping Haitian authorities to deal with the current extensive cholera outbreak in the Caribbean island nation, said a UN spokesman on Friday.

Suspected cases of cholera have been found in eight of Haiti's 10 administrative departments. The occupancy rate in the 15 cholera treatment centers in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area reached more than 80 percent on Wednesday, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Increasing the number of beds available is a critical effort, he said.

The Pan American Health Organization, an affiliate of the World Health Organization, continues to provide technical assistance to the Haitian Health Ministry to strengthen case detection, lab analysis and case management capacity while procuring medical supplies and equipment, said the spokesman.

The UN Children's Fund has distributed 130,000 liters of potable water in Cite Soleil, a densely populated poor area of the capital city of Port-au-Prince, in the last three days, serving close to 3,000 people per day in what is a challenging environment, he told a daily press briefing.

Community health workers and nongovernmental organizations are conducting awareness-raising sessions on cholera. They are also distributing chlorine and water purification tablets in the most impacted neighborhoods of the capital city, he added.

Earlier this week, the UN Humanitarian Air Service transported nutritional supplements, which the World Food Programme and its partners plan to use in Cite Soleil. The Air Service also continues to bring in hospital beds, as part of UN support to the cholera response, he said.

A report published on Friday by the International Organization for Migration and Haitian authorities shows that the number of people displaced by gang-related violence has tripled in the past five months, reaching close to 96,000 men, women and children in Port-au-Prince, noted the spokesman.