Cholera Surge in Haiti Is Feared

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — An increase in new cholera patients in rural Haiti has raised concern that the outbreak may be starting to surge again with the spring rainy season, a medical aid group based in the United States said Wednesday.

Health experts in Haiti warned in January when the cholera outbreak began to slow that there could be a surge of new cases in the spring, when rain would help spread contaminated water.

Workers for the aid group Partners in Health have noted an increase in new patients at treatment centers in the countryside, as well as in Port-au-Prince, the capital, said a spokeswoman for the group, Kathryn Mahoney.

At centers in Mirebalais, a central town near where the outbreak was first detected in October, the number of new cholera patients has roughly tripled in recent weeks, Ms. Mahoney said.

Sylvain Groulx, chief of mission in Haiti for Doctors Without Borders, which has had a leading role in responding to the outbreak, said that group’s workers had seen only a slight increase in new cases in the countryside.