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Haiti cholera death toll rises to 1,751 Port-Au-Prince (AFP) Nov 30, 2010 Haiti's cholera epidemic has killed at least 1,751 people since it emerged in mid-October, according to figures released by the health ministry on Tuesday. A total of 77,208 people have been infected by the disease and 34,248 have been hospitalized since the outbreak, officials said. The number of dead is 30 more than the previous toll released Monday. The hardest hit region, the Artibonite department north of the capital Port-au-Prince, has seen 773 people die from cholera, while another 164 people have died from the disease in the capital Port-au-Prince. Six cases have been confirmed in the neighboring Dominican Republic and a seventh in Miami, Florida -- the first stop for most people leaving Haiti. The UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti has been widely blamed for the outbreak, with many Haitians saying it came from Nepalese soldiers posted on a tributary of the Artibonite River, along which the first cases were reported. French cholera specialist Renaud Piarroux warned on Monday that the disease could eventually infect up to 200,000 people. Cholera is caused by bacteria spread in contaminated water or food, often through feces. If untreated, it can kill within a day by causing rapid dehydration, with the old and the young the most vulnerable.
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