The death toll of 259 from Gabriel Thimote, director general of Haiti's health department, went up by just six over the last 24 hours, although the number of new infections still rose by more than 200 to 3,342.

Aid agencies, meanwhile, stepped up efforts to ring-fence the disease and keep it out of the refugee camps around the capital where 1.3 million people displaced by the earthquake live in unsanitary conditions.

Speaking in Washington, Daniel Epstein, a spokesman for the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the regional branch of the World Health Organization, told AFP it was "too early" to declare the outbreak over.

"The pattern of the outbreak is very difficult, if not impossible, to predict," Epstein said.

"The most important thing now is not counting numbers but treating people, which is really simple, it's all rehydration salts in 80 percent of the cases."

Haitian officials had already said on Sunday, when 33 new deaths were reported, that the outbreak appeared to be under control and largely limited to a "well-defined perimeter" in central areas along the Artibonite river.

Cholera is primarily passed on through contaminated water or food and could spread like wildfire through tent cities where displaced families bathe outside, do laundry and share meals in close quarters.

Only five people in the capital have been diagnosed with cholera so far and the UN said they had all traveled in from the epicenter of the outbreak.

Contamination of the Artibonite River, an artery crossing Haiti's rural center that thousands of people use for much of their daily activities, is believed to be the source of the epidemic.

Most of those infected have been admitted to hospitals and health centers around Saint-Marc, a main town several hours northwest of the capital.

President Rene Preval and Health Minister Alex Larsen toured regions affected by the epidemic at the weekend, as authorities vowed they were working to provide clean water to residents.

Thimote said the government was launching a big anti-cholera campaign at local community level and in schools and was being helped by the World Health Organization and the US health authorities to improve fresh water facilities.

Doctors Without Borders has installed a field hospital in Saint-Marc to treat patients and Oxfam has sent emergency specialists to Artibonite to set up water, sanitation and hygiene facilities for up to 100,000 people.

Oxfam said it will distribute soap, water tablets and rehydration salt packs to 25,000 Haitians as part of the effort to rein in the cholera outbreak.

The Canadian government has offered to set up a military hospital on the ground and the United States has pledged to set up large tents to treat patients.

The US branch of the Red Cross also sent three large shipments of supplies to Haiti, which was considered the poorest country in the western hemisphere even before January's 7.0-magnitude quake.

Large parts of the capital Port-au-Prince and other nearby towns were flattened, a quarter of a million people lost their lives and even more were displaced after losing their homes.

earlier related report
Expect cholera cases in Haiti for years to come: WHO
Washington (AFP) Oct 25, 2010 - The cholera outbreak that has claimed hundreds of lives in Haiti could continue for years, an official from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned on Monday.

"Now that cholera has established itself with a strong foothold in Haiti, it's clear to us that this will not go away for several years," Jon Andrus, deputy director of PAHO, the regional branch of the World Health Organization, told reporters.

"The surge of cases will come down but there will probably be cases in the future, now that the bacteria is well established in the environment."

Health authorities and aid agencies have to "plan that way, mobilize resources, and develop capacity that in the long run will help the Haitian people," said Andrus.

Haitian health officials said earlier Monday that the number of new deaths from cholera had dropped off dramatically, falling from 220 over the first few days, to 33 on Sunday and just six on Monday.

They have suggested that the outbreak, which comes 10 months after Haiti was devastated by an earthquake, had been contained outside the capital as the number of fatalities and new infections began to taper off.

But a PAHO official told AFP on Monday it was too early to declare the epidemic in Haiti over, and refused to be drawn on whether the outbreak had been contained.

"I think it is too early to tell" if this is the end of the epidemic, Daniel Epstein said. "The pattern of the outbreak is very difficult, if not impossible, to predict.

"The most important thing now is not counting numbers but treating people, which is really simple, it's all rehydration salts in 80 percent of the cases," he said.

International aid agencies are fighting to stop cholera reaching tent cities in the capital where 1.3 million people displaced by January's earthquake subsist in unsanitary conditions.

"We have teams there and we are sending more people including epidemiologists with experience in cholera," said Epstein.

Cholera is primarily passed on through contaminated water or food. Characteristic symptoms include severe vomiting and diarrhea and if patients become dehydrated it can kill in a matter of hours.

Large parts of the capital Port-au-Prince and other nearby towns were flattened by January's 7.0-magnitude quake and a quarter of a million people lost their lives.

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