Nightly News   |  November 04, 2010

Port-au-Prince MD: Spread of cholera 'inevitable'

Although so far none of the 400 cases of cholera to hit Haiti have spread to the earthquake refugee camps in Port-au-Prince, medical officials fear a hurricane will hasten its onslaught. NBC's Robert Bazell reports.

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This content comes from a Full-Text Transcript of the program.

ROBERT BAZELL reporting: This is Robert Bazell . At a camp near the ocean, residents are doing what they can to batten down. While leaders of the organization running the camp, a Haitian clinic called GHESKIO , are terrified. A huge fear in this area is that the ocean is there, and mountains are there, and that water in the hurricane could rise up from the oceans, come down from the mountains and completely swamp this land. That would force water from this nearby sewage-infested creek into tents and into the shanty homes of this huge slum next door. Since the cholera outbreak that has killed more than 400 in Haiti , the GHESKIO clinic has been on high alert for cases. So far, not a single case in Port -au-Prince, though the clinic director is far from complacent.

Dr. JEAN PAPE (GHESKIO Clinic): I think it's inevitable. Now it's the timing that we don't know.

BAZELL: And no one doubts Tomas could push the timing faster. Robert Bazell , NBC News, Port-au-Prince.