Haitian health authorities and the UN confirmed on Saturday the detection of five first cases of cholera in the capital, Port-au-Prince. More than 220 people died and nearly 3,000 others infected are hospitalized.

"We have confirmed five cases of cholera in Port-au-Prince who were diagnosed and isolated quickly," said Imogen Wall, spokesman for the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Haiti. Indicating that the five infected people had contracted the disease in the Artibonite, the North of the capital, and had subsequently returned to Port-au-Prince, where they became ill.

"This is not a new outbreak of infection," said the spokesman for OCHA, adding that surveillance had been increased in the Haitian capital, particularly near camps where live more than one million refugees.

S/ HaitiLibre