EPIDEMIC

U.N. Doubles Haiti's Cholera Projection

To nearly half a million cases.

Humanitarian organizations have lost their grip on the cholera epidemic that is crippling Haiti. The United Nations now expects that there will be some 425,000 cases of the disease across the country in the first six months since it appeared, more than twice as many as originally projected. And the tally could reach 200,000 before the year is out. "When we were in the initial stages of planning, we had said there would be 200,000 cases over six months," said the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Haiti. "Today the figures are 425,000 over six months, of which 200,000 [are expected] before year's end, with a peak before Christmas." The official tally of cases so far is 66,593, with 1,523 fatalities, but the real numbers are probably much higher because of poor record-keeping. The epidemic first flared up in a rural part of the country, but now affects all 10 regions of Haiti.