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Local authorities on high alert following Cholera upsurge in Haiti

Jamaican health authorities are on high alert amid an upsurge in cases of cholera in Haiti since last week's passage of Hurricane Matthew.

The waterborne-disease that since 2010 has sickened more than 700,000 and killed more than 9,000 in Haiti, had recorded a lull in the past three months. However, news came on Sunday that cholera has killed at least 13 people in southwest Haiti in the wake of Hurricane Matthew.

Dr. Winston De La Haye, Jamaica's acting Chief Medical Officer, said the situation is being closely monitored and precautionary measures are not being ruled out.

Since last week, six people died of cholera in a hospital in the town of Randel and another seven in a coastal town on the western tip. Officials said the cholera occurred as flood waters mixed with sewage.    

Cholera causes severe diarrhea and can kill within hours if untreated. It is spread through contaminated water and has a short incubation period, which leads to rapid outbreaks.
                                                            
Mass graves in Haiti
 
Meanwhile, Haiti has started burying some of its dead in mass graves as the death toll rose to $1,000.
   
The number of deaths is based on a Reuters tally of data from local officials.  
   
The death toll from the central civil protection agency is 336, a slower count because officials must visit each village to confirm the numbers.  
   
Kedner Frenel, the most senior central government official in the Grand'Anse region on Haiti's western peninsula, said authorities had to start burying the dead in mass graves in Jeremie as the bodies were starting to decompose.
 
Frenel said 522 people died in Grand'Anse alone.
   
A tally of death reported by mayors from 15 of 18 municipalities in Sud Department on the south side of the peninsula, showed 386 people there. The same tally showed 92 people died in the rest of the country.
                                                         


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