HAITI CHOLERA COULD AFFECT 400,000 WITHOUT STRONGER RESPONSE, WARNS EMERGENCY RELIEF COORDINATOR

(Port-au-Prince/New York, 23 November 2010): As the United Nations today doubled its estimation of the number of Haitians who could be affected by cholera, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos arrived in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince to highlight the need for a much stronger international and national response.

"This epidemic has not yet peaked. If we don't respond strongly and quickly enough then more people will die needlessly," she said. "The humanitarian work already being done in Haiti, some of which I saw today, has already saved tens of thousands of lives. But it is not enough to curb the loss of life, or equip Haitians to tackle this crisis themselves," Ms. Amos added.

The Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and World Health Organization (WHO) today estimated that based on the speed with which people are being infected in Haiti the outbreak could affect 400,000 people. This is considered a worst case scenario, avoidable if the prevention and treatment responses reach people in the poor areas in Port-au-Prince and those in other towns and outlying areas in the country.

"This projection is a wakeup call. We need to invest in cholera prevention nationwide in Haiti, as well as building more treatment centres and increasing the number of health workers on the ground to support the work already being done," Ms. Amos said.

Last week, the United Nations launched an appeal for $164 million for additional treatment centres, scaled up public information campaigns to help people understand how to prevent infection, supplies of medical equipment, rehydration salts, water purification tablets and other essential materials, and training programmes to boost the capacity of Haitians to respond to this and future outbreaks autonomously over the longer term.

Ms. Amos, the world's humanitarian chief, today visited a displaced people's camp in the Tabarre neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, and a cholera treatment centre. She also met senior leaders from the UN and humanitarian agencies in Haiti, and the non-governmental organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF). She will depart Haiti on 24 November.

For further information, please call:

OCHA-Haiti: Imogen Wall, +509 3491 2244, wall@un.org;

OCHA-New York: Nicholas Reader, +1 212 963 4961, mobile +1 646 752 3117, reader@un.org,

OCHA-Geneva: Elisabeth Byrs, +41 22 917 2653, mobile +41 79 473 4570, byrs@un.org

OCHA press releases are available at http://ochaonline.un.org or www.reliefweb.int