ARTICLE - CTC FUNDED BY S. KOREA AND CANADA

CHOLERA CONTROL CENTER FUNDED BY S. KOREA, CANADA OPENS IN HAITI
(TMC) -

Santo Domingo - The Dominican Churches Social Service, or SSID, has opened a Cholera Treatment Center in the community of Bon Repos in Port-au-Prince, a center funded with about $250,000 provided by South Korean and Canadian cooperation entities, the Dominican institution announced Sunday.

Haiti has been suffering since last October from a cholera epidemic that has taken the lives of about 5,400 people and infected 344,000, according to government figures.

Over the past several weeks, a resurgence in the disease has been registered, particularly in areas around Port-au-Prince, and that has led international organizations to intensify their efforts and even reopen several cholera treatment centers.

In a communique issued by the organization, SSID executive director Lorenzo Mota King said that the specialized health center has an examination room, an observation room, two rooms for housing up to 18 patients each and a recovery room, according to a communique.

The head of the center is a South Korean woman and working with her will be a doctor, nine nurses, five service personnel and two health representatives, among others.

Mota King said that the international organizations that contributed to making the project a reality were Diakonia Koreana of South Korea and Global Assistance Partners of Canada.

Also working at the center will be the local office of Unicef and the U.N. Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti, or Minustah.

The temporary center was established in an area where more than 10,000 families are living in tents and currently lack the regular assistance of the government or private organizations.

Mota King said that in the face of the recent increase in cholera cases the Dominican government had found it necessary to increase its vigilance and efforts to deal with the epidemic.