A new cholera infection has been detected in Haiti, authorities announced Sunday, over three years after the epidemic which killed 10,000 people in the impoverished Caribbean nation ended.
A confirmed case was detected in central Port-Au-Prince, while there are multiple suspected cases in the capital’s Cite Soleil neighborhood, Haiti’s health ministry said in a statement.
The ministry added that measures were being taken to limit the spread of the virus, including investigation of other possible cases, while calling for the country to practice increased hygiene precautions.
Introduced by United Nations workers after Haiti’s calamitous 2010 earthquake, cholera went on to kill around 10,000 people.
The first viral infections were detected around the Artibonite River, where UN peacekeepers had dumped fecal matter, before spreading throughout the country.
It was not until August 2016 that the UN officially recognized its role in the epidemic’s start.
The last positive case before Sunday was detected in 2019, and in February 2022 the Ministry of Public Health held a ceremony to mark the official elimination of cholera in the country.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who has served as the nation’s acting leader since the assassination of its president in July 2021, said at the event: “This February 4 represents a model of political and civic commitment, which will remain a memorable date in the annals of public health history.”
