Cholera reaches Haiti's capital

14:43, October 24, 2010

15:21, October 24, 2010

Patients suffering from diarrhea and other cholera symptoms are helped by other residents as they wait for treatment at the St. Nicholas hospital in Saint Marc, Haiti, Friday, Oct. 22, 2010. Haiti cholera epidemic kills over 200, fears of wider outbreak

Patients suffering from diarrhea and other cholera symptoms are helped by other residents as they wait for treatment at the St. Nicholas hospital in Saint Marc, Haiti, Friday, Oct. 22, 2010.

About 208 people have died from a cholera epidemic in Haiti and more than 2,600 others were infected in the worst public health disaster to strike the earthquake-ravaged Caribbean nation.

Health officials said Saturday that 194 people died from cholera in the Artibonite region, north of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, and 14 others died in neighboring Central Plateau, according to reports monitored here.

More than 50 inmates at a prison in Mirebalais, just north of Port-au-Prince, have been infected with cholera, and three inmates have died, according to the officials.

The officials also said at least five people tested positive for cholera in Port-au-Prince, where about 1.3 million survivors of the Jan. 12 earthquake packed in squalid camps, raising fears of a much larger health emergency.