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GENEVA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday said Haiti was nearing the completion of its vaccination campaign against cholera, having reached more than 729,000 people in Sud and Grand Anse departments, areas ravaged by Hurricane Matthew.
Since the hurricane struck the island on Oct. 4, more than 5,800 suspected cholera cases have been reported by Haiti's health ministry, while the population in need of humanitarian assistance remains at 1.4 million, and more than 175,000 people are still in shelters, according to WHO.
With support from the WHO and other partners, vaccination teams fanned out across the two departments starting Nov. 8, aiming to reduce the burden of cholera cases by immunizing people in 16 different communes where cholera cases had been reported and where water and sanitation systems were damaged.
Early reports from the ministry show that vaccination coverage reached 94 percent in Grande Anse and 90 percent in Sud Department, but some communes had lower than average coverage.
Epidemiologists and immunization experts were mobilized to support the campaign, which was carried out with one million doses of oral cholera vaccine provided by Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization(GAVI) through the Global Task Force on Cholera Control.
Haiti's public health minister Daphne Benoit noted when the campaign began that "the vaccine is an additional intervention which will help us to save lives, but does not replace the efforts that the government supports in the field of water and sanitation."
WHO stressed the importance for all partners to join forces in assisting the health ministry to "work together and with partners to build local capacity for clinical management of cases in the cholera treatment centers."
