More than 6% of Haitians have had cholera since outbreak began, new data show

"The death toll in Haiti's cholera epidemic is approaching 8,000, and more than six percent of Haitians have had the disease since it invaded the country in October 2010, according to reports released this week," CIDRAP reports. "In a January 7 cholera update [.pdf], the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said fatalities in Haiti reached 7,912 as of December 31, out of 635,980 cases and 350,679 hospitalizations," the news service writes, noting, "The case-fatality rate is 1.2 percent."

According to an analysis of surveillance data from the first two years of the epidemic published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine by an international team of researchers, the cumulative attack rate reached 6.1 percent by October 2012, CIDRAP notes. Through October 20, "the case count was 604,634, and the death toll was 7,436," according to the authors, the news service writes. "Haiti accounted for 57 percent of all cholera cases and 53 percent of cholera deaths reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2010, the report says," the news service writes, adding, "For 2011 the respective figures were 58 percent and 37 percent" (Roos, 1/9).