Health officials in Haiti say the toll from a cholera epidemic has risen to 253 dead and over 3,000 infected. Most of the deaths have occurred in the rural Artibonite region north of the capital Port-au-Prince, but there have been a growing number of confirmed cholera cases in the capital city, as well. Authorities have begun establishing treatment centers in Port-Au-Prince, where over one million Haitians have been living in tent camps following the January earthquake.

Dr. Jon Arbus, Pan American Health Organization: “This outbreak is likely to get much larger, given our experience with cholera epidemics in the past, particularly in a population that has really no protective immunity, not having been exposed recently to cholera. So we expect it to get bigger, and we have to expect that and react to it.”

In the Haitian town of Saint Marc, patients with cholera have been seeking treatment at the local hospital.

Roselin Elins: “Yeah, I felt the symptom in my stomach, and then I went to the bathroom, and I had watery diarrhea. I went to the hospital, and they told me how to make an oral serum at home. I drank it all night, and it didn’t help the diarrhea, so I’m back at the hospital.”