AKIPRESS.COM - One week after Hurricane Matthew slammed into Haiti, United Nations agencies are continuing the massive relief effort under way on the ground, scrambling to fend off the threat of cholera, delivering life-saving supplies and rehabilitating damaged infrastructure, such as schools.

The World Health Organization (WHO) decided to send one million cholera vaccine doses and dispatch Dr. Dominique Legros, WHO’s cholera focal point, to Haiti at the end of the week to discuss with the Ministry of Health how to best use the vaccines.

WHO had already deployed some 80 staff from its regional office, and had also provided materials for cholera care, treatment centres, beds and materials for treatment of patients. The agency has also mobilized partners, such as Médecins Sans Frontières, known as Doctors Without Borders, which deployed 40 of its own staff.

“The top priority for people affected by the hurricane is to give them access to safe drinking water. It is the only way to control cholera on the long term in Haiti and elsewhere,” Dr. Legros told reporters in Geneva at the regular bi-weekly press briefing, noting that Hurricane Matthew hit at a time when cholera was still putting a heavy burden on the tiny Caribbean island nation.

In the context of flooding and potential contamination of drinking water by faecal sludge, WHO was concerned about the further increase in cholera cases, particularly at this time of the year, as there is usually an increment in cases reported between November and January, he said.

Dr. Legros said that since the beginning of the cholera outbreak in October 2010 there had been 790,000 cases and more than 9,000 deaths in Haiti. There had since been a sharp drop, but from 2014, cases have increased every year. In 2016, there had been 30,000 cases to date. Not having access to safe water is the main reason for these cases, he added.