Haiti's death toll from cholera nearly 500

Nearly four months after the reappearance of cholera in Haiti, the death toll in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member state has risen to 496

In a statement on Saturday, the Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) said the country has already registered 25,182 suspected cases and 21,407 hospitalized, 73 new, while 312 of the 496 deaths occurred in health institutions and 184 in communities

In a bulletin, the health authorities stated that the average age of those infected is 19 years, and the positivity rate is 37 25 percent, of the suspected cases – 56 60 percent are men, and the remaining are women

The most affected age group is 1 to 4 years old, with 374 confirmed cases of more than 3,000 suspected cases

The most affected department is the west, where Port-au-Prince is located and where more than one-third of the population lives, with 1,155 confirmed cases for 16,408 suspected cases

Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the world is suffering unprecedented cholera outbreaks in countries affected by climate disasters and other crises

Cholera is an acute enteric infection caused by ingesting the bacteria Vibrio cholerae present in contaminated water or food It is mainly linked to inadequate sanitation and insufficient access to safe drinking water

As a result, vaccines to prevent this disease have become “extremely scarce ”

Cholera was first reported in Haiti in October 2010 Nationally, a total of 820 000 cases of cholera including 9792 deaths were reported between October 2010 and February 2019 The last confirmed case in this outbreak was reported in January 2019 in I'Estère in the Artibonite department of Haiti The country did not report a single case of cholera in the three years from January 2019 to January 2022 The current outbreak is also occurring in the context of a complex humanitarian crisis that is exacerbating the burden of disease and hindering response measures

396 Haitian migrants detained on a boat near The Bahamas

The U S Coast Guard has detained a boat carrying 396 Haitian migrants near The Bahamas in one of the biggest human smuggling incidents in the region, Bahamian officials said

The migrants were detained close to the far-flung Cay Sal island located between Florida and Cuba, immigration officials in The Bahamas said in a statement Sunday

They said the migrants will be processed on the Bahamian island of Inagua and later repatriated

Nicole Groll, a U S Coast Guard spokeswoman, told The Associated Press on Monday that the interdiction happened Saturday afternoon and involved a 50-foot boat

“It was grossly overloaded and very much unsafe,” she said No further details were immediately available

Thousands of Haitians are fleeing a spike in gang violence and deepening political instability in Haiti

Many travel to The Bahamas and other nearby islands in hopes of eventually reaching

Florida The voyages are often deadly, with migrants crowding into makeshift vessels that have capsized in recent months

The exodus comes as the administration of U S President Joe Biden recently announced that it would start turning back Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans at the Texas border who arrive illegally The administration is now offering humanitarian parole for 30,000 people a month from those countries if they secure a financial sponsor, apply online and pay their airfare