Statement About the Cholera Epidemic coming to the USA

The first known case of cholera in the United States has been confirmed. The Florida Department of Health said on Wednesday that a woman in the southwest of the state contracted the disease during a recent visit to cholera-stricken Haiti, where it claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people. The woman reportedly visited a family in the worst-affected region of Lower Artibonite, where cholera was first diagnosed on October 19, and the intestinal infection caused by consumption of contaminated water and food spread to the north, north-east and north-western parts of the country later. The woman sought treatment for five days this month at a hospital in Collier County for symptoms of cholera. State health officials said the woman was expected to recover fully and that there was no room for panic, as "the state of Florida, and the U.S. generally, has a very sound infrastructure for food, water and sewage," unlike the non-hygenic conditions and contaminated drinking water in Haiti. It said several suspected cases of the disease have been reported elsewhere in the state, which are under investigation. Reports say frequent travel of people -- including Haiti aid workers - between Haiti and Florida, which is home to at least 250,000 people of Haitian descent, poses a potential threat of the epidemic spreading to this part of America. The Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispanola with Haiti, confirmed its first case of cholera on Tuesday. The patient, a Haitian migrant, apparently contracted the disease during his recent visit of his homeland. It was for the first time in more than a century that the dual Hispanola island nations were struck with an outbreak of cholera. Haiti's Health Ministry estimates that more than 1,000 people have died and 16,000 others infected in five of the country's ten districts by the killer disease since its outbreak a month ago.