Haiti Cholera update

Hillary Clinton washes her hands during a visit to Partners in Health Cholera Treatment Center.

If you read or watch the news you may have seen reports that Secretary of State Hilary Clinton was in Haiti yesterday touring a cholera clinic.

Although the number of new cases is finally declining the outbreak is still far from over.

Steven Smith, a health official at the US embassy, told Clinton that "we're seeing a decrease in the number of cholera cases. Even more important, we're seeing a decrease in the number of fatalities."
But he said there were still hundreds of new cases a day countrywide.
The number of new patients at the Cholera Treatment Center, managed by US government grantee Partners in Health, has been reduced by half to about 40 per day since the start of the epidemic, a State Department official said.
Five patients have died at the clinic, the official said.
The death toll from Haiti's cholera epidemic is 4,030, the Haitian health ministry said Thursday, while the number of cholera cases totaled 209,034 as of January 24.