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Port-Au-Prince (AFP) Jan 27, 2011 The death toll from Haiti's cholera epidemic has gone up to 4,030 more than three months after the disease broke out in the country's Artibonite valley, the health ministry said Thursday. The number of cholera cases seen in Haiti totalled 209,034 as of January 24, the ministry said. The severity of the epidemic has diminished over time, but the ministry's figures show that Haitians are still dying from the bacterial infection, which can strike swiftly with intense diarrhea and vomiting leading to dehydration and sometimes death. In the latest wrinkle in the evolution of the epidemic, Haitian and international health officials are investigating a cluster of cases of paralysis in recovering cholera patients with days of being discharged from a treatment center. "Experts including toxicologists are investigating possible contamination at a hospital or at home from medication, food, or another source as the cause of death in these cases," the Pan American Health Organization said. Another possible cause is polio, it said, but officials believe that is highly unlikely because polio is rarely lethal and three of the four patients who suffered paralysis died. The health crisis broke out in mid-October as Haiti was struggling to recover from a 7.0 magnitude quake in January that killed more than 220,000 people, left 1.3 million homeless, and the capital in ruins. While the epidemic is subsiding in Haiti, Venezuelan authorities announced emergency measures Thursday after 452 Venezuelans were exposed to cholera at a wedding on Saturday in the Dominican Republic, which borders Haiti. There were at least 37 confirmed cholera cases among Venezuelans returning from the wedding, and officials in Caracas were trying to track down more than 400 others known to have attended the event.
earlier related report Ariel Henry, chief of staff of the Haitian health ministry, said epidemiologists were sent to the town of Fonds Baptiste, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Port-au-Prince, to investigate the large number of sudden deaths there. "The victims were said to have died suddenly after being seized with strong migraines, vomiting and struck blind," Henry said, recounting reports from witnesses. A nurse contacted by telephone by AFP said 16 people had died since the start of the week in the town. Henry put the number of deaths at about a dozen, while Daniel Epstein, a spokesman with the Pan American Health Organization, said the exact number had not been determined yet. "We are investigating two groups of deaths... that occurred after a voodoo ceremony," Epstein said, adding that they appeared to be from poisoning. They may have consumed a homemade alcohol, or eaten fruit from the ackee tree, which contains a toxic compound that can be fatal if the fruit is not harvested and prepared correctly, he said. Another doctor, who asked not to be identified, suggested the cause of death was probably ethanol poisoning. "The first data gathered show that they had drunk homemade brew," he said. In a separate medical mystery, the Pan American Health Organization said Haitian and international health authorities were looking into four cases of paralysis in recovering cholera patients in the town of Port-de-Paix. Three of the four patients died, and one is slowly recovering in a hospital in Port-au-Prince, it said. "These patients, hospitalized for severe cholera, presented an ascending bilateral flaccid paralysis of acute onset 24 to 72 hours after the end of the cholera treatment," the agency said. The cases were first reported on January 10 in Haiti's Nord-Ouest Department. "All of the cases were seen at the same cholera treatment center and returned 2-4 days later with neurological symptoms, at which point they were hospitalized," the agency said. "Experts including toxicologists are investigating possible contamination at a hospital or at home from medication, food, or another source as the cause of death in these cases," it said. "Although considered highly unlikely, polio has not been completely ruled out, pending laboratory results of samples," it said. The experts do not believe it is polio because the disease rarely causes death.
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