Fresh rioting broke out in Haiti with one new fatality in a clash with UN peacekeepers blamed by some for the cholera outbreak, as fears grew that the epidemic may spread beyond Haiti\'s borders.
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| Haitians are supervised as they line up to receive supplies from the Red Cross on November 17, 2010 near Port au-Prince. |
A man was shot dead and several others injured in northern Haiti, the first area of the outbreak which officials said could kill as many as 10,000 people.
Haiti\'s health ministry said Wednesday that 1,100 people have now died from cholera since the disease was first detected in late October. The number of people hospitalized also grew to 18,382.
"Our projections show that we could have around 200,000 cases of infection in Haiti over the next six to 12 months," Pan-American Health Organization regional advisor Ciro Ugarte told AFP.
"If the fatality rate (of four to five percent) is maintained... we may have 10,000 dead," said Ugarte.
Isolated cholera cases have been found in the Dominican Republic -- it shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti -- and as far away as the southern US state of Florida.
Aid workers complained that protests were holding up relief operations in the second city of Cap Haitien, while a top UN official said the demonstrations were being "orchestrated."
Two Haitians were killed in riots in Cap Haitien on Monday, one shot by a UN peacekeeper as protesters set a police station and vehicles ablaze and threatened to torch a UN compound.
A police source told AFP a third person was shot dead in fresh rioting in the city on Wednesday. It wasn\'t clear if the latest fatality was a UN peacekeeper, a member of the Haitian police, or a protester.
UN spokesman Vincenzo Pugliese could not confirm the fatality, but said UN workers had not been able to get to work on Wednesday because of the tensions in the city.
The Oxfam aid group confirmed the protests and said it was worried that the unrest could lead to a faster spread of the cholera that has already killed more than 1,100 people in the country.
"Roads are blocked with protesters and burning tires, and we physically can\'t get to our work sites, especially with trucks carrying crucial supplies like soap, water tablets or rehydration salts," said Julie Schindall, Oxfam spokeswoman in Haiti.
The UN said that in one incident this week, a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse had been looted of 500 tonnes of food and burned.
Schindall said: "The violence is delaying our cholera response in Cap-Haitien. We?re obviously frustrated by it and worried for the people that desperately need clean water."
The cholera outbreak -- the first in half a century in the impoverished Caribbean nation -- is bringing new chaos to Haiti ravaged in a January quake, which killed 250,000 people and left 1.3 million homeless.
And health officials fear the disease could spread like wildfire if it infiltrates Haiti\'s squalid relocation camps around the capital where hundreds of thousands of quake refugees live in cramped and unsanitary conditions.
The disease has surfaced for the first time in the Dominican Republic, with one person who crossed over the border from Haiti being treated for vomiting and diarrhea.
Dominican President Leonel Fernandez held an emergency meeting with his cabinet Wednesday to brainstorm on ways to combat the disease.
"The decision was made to tighten health controls along the border," health minister Bautista Rojas Gomez hold reporters during a break in the cabinet meeting.
Dominican officials worry fears of infection could have a devastating impact on their tourist industry, the country\'s main income generator.
And Florida officials confirmed to AFP that a woman who recently visited relatives in Haiti had tested positive for cholera in the southern US state.
Florida -- home to a large Haitian community of about 240,000 people who travel frequently to the nation -- is already on alert for any outbreak of the water-borne disease.
There are claims the outbreak emanated from septic tanks at a base for Nepalese peacekeepers where some believe infected feces leaked into a tributary of the Artibonite River, used by locals for drinking and bathing.
The rumors sparked violent protests this week against the UN troops.
The UN force, known as MINUSTAH, issued a statement linking the protests to presidential elections and calling on Haitians not to allow themselves to be manipulated by "the enemies of stability and democracy."
