| ■ Health organization to pursue cholera vaccination in Haiti | 2010.12.17 |
| The Pan American Health Organization hopes to start a cholera vaccination program in Haiti by April but must first boost and fund production of the vaccine that is in short supply, the group said on Friday. The diarrheal disease appeared in the poor Caribbean nation in October for the first time in decades and has sickened 105,000 people and killed more than 2,000, Haitian health officials have said. PAHO, the American division of the World Health Organization, had previously opposed vaccination in Haiti on grounds that it would be too difficult and expensive. It changed course on Friday and recommended using the vaccine in Haiti, partly because it has discovered a stockpile of additional vaccine and partly out of recognition that the outbreak would not be halted any time soon. |