Port-au-Prince, November 30 (RHC)-- According to the Haitian Ministry of Health and Population (MSPP), cholera has killed 223 people in the country to date.  The health authority said that since October 2nd, over 1,000 confirmed cases of cholera have been reported, as well as nearly 12,000 suspected cases.

According to the evaluation of the Department of Epidemiology, Laboratories and Research of the MSPP, 4,100 children under nine years old have symptoms, of which 252 are under the age of one.  The Director of UNICEF's Office of Emergency Programs, Manuel Fontaine, recently warned that Haitian children are at triple risk in a country currently hit by malnutrition, cholera and armed violence.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned that two out of every 55 cholera patients, 40 percent of the total, are children, and most of them live in areas affected by a growing nutritional crisis.  During this cholera outbreak, medical care and assistance to affected families is hampered by increased violence and armed groups.  

The first cholera epidemic in the Caribbean country lasted nine years and claimed the lives of some 10,000 people with more than 800,000 contagions.