The cholera epidemic in Haiti will exceed UN projections, reveals a new study conducted by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the Harvard Medical School.
The United Nations' has estimated that there will be 400,000 cases of diarrhoeal disease over the course of the epidemic. But, the study, to be published in the journal Lancet, predicts that the number of cases may double and reach upto 779,000 between March and November this year.
"The epidemic is not likely to be short-term", "It is going to be larger than predicted in terms of sheer numbers and will last far longer than the initial projections," The Eureka Alert quoted UCSF medical resident Sanjay Basu, as saying.
Basu, who conducted the study with Jason Andrews, a former UCSF resident, said that three public health interventions must be used by the authorities to curtail the epidemic .People must be provided clean water, vaccination and proper antibiotics.
Analysis suggests that antibiotic treatment can be the most effective way to save thousands of lives in Haiti.
According to Basu, the high cost of the antibiotics makes it difficult to ensure its access to the people.
Earlier, no cases of cholera were registered in Haiti, but due to the devastating earthquake in 2010, the disease has emerged as a major epidemic.
Last year, between October and December nearly 150,000 people in Haiti suffered from cholera, and over 3,000 people had died. (ANI)
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