The United Nations is asking for 164 million dollars to fight the epidemic, which has gained strength over the past week and spread to Port-au-Prince where 1.3 million people left homeless in a massive quake in January live in close quarters in makeshift camps.

"We hope we can get this, otherwise all our efforts will be over-run by the epidemic," Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said in Geneva Friday.

In nearby Cuba, Fidel Castro criticized the United States for moving too slowly to deliver aid months after a massive earthquake that killed 250,000 people.

In an article criticizing a summit in Seoul of the world's 20 largest economies, Castro charged that "not a single word is said" about an epidemic that threatens to spread throughout the Caribbean.

Bangladesh, however, said it was sending a team of eight cholera experts to Haiti to train local medical personnel in ways to manage the epidemic.

The outbreak, the first in Haiti in more than a century, was confirmed on October 22 in northern Haiti where the Artibonite River is believed to the conduit of the disease.

Since then more than 12,300 people have been sickened, swamping tiny, overwhelmed and ill-prepared hospitals and clinics, according to the health ministry.

Out of the 796 deaths recorded so far, only 13 people succumbed to the disease in the teeming Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, including its largest slum Cite Soleil and its suburbs.

But there is a real fear that it will flare in the city's makeshift refugee camps where it could spread swiftly through the crowded, unsanitary conditions.

The aid group Save the Children said 40 percent of those who have died in the epidemic were not in a hospital or clinic, suggesting they had no treatment or had not recognized symptoms of a disease that can kill within hours.

"A huge number of people are already affected by this outbreak," said Nick Ireland of Save the Children.

"At this point, our best hope is to reduce the rate at which cholera spreads and the best way to do this is to arm people with health information, clean water and soap."

Save the Children, however, said it has been working with Haitian authorities and other humanitarian organizations to prepare for a possible nationwide epidemic.

"It's unclear how this outbreak will play itself out but we are planning for a worst case scenario," said Ireland.

The United Nations anticipates that up to 200,000 people will show symptoms ranging from cases of mild diarrhea to the most severe dehydration over the next six months.

"We urgently need medical staff, trained nurses... and to ramp up medical supplies," warned Byrs.

Doctors were taken by surprise by the cholera outbreak.

"No one alive in Haiti has experienced cholera before," said WHO spokesman Gregory Haertl.

There have been roughly 1,000 new cases every day this week and the death curve is getting steadily steeper.

"If cholera cases continue to rise at this rate, we'll quickly be overwhelmed," warned Yves Lambert, head of infectious diseases at the main public hospital in central Port-au-Prince.

The bulk of the requested money -- around 89 million dollars -- will be used for water, sanitation and hygiene, while 43 million will be used for health, and 19 million for efforts in the camps housing people displaced by the earthquake, UN officials said.

"A major effort has already been made, but the sheer quantity of relief items that need to be delivered in the days and weeks ahead is going to require more logistical and financial support for the government by all humanitarian agencies and donors and very close coordination,' said Nigel Fisher, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti.

"Without this the epidemic could well outrun our efforts," he added.

Hurricane Tomas, which claimed more than 20 lives in Haiti a week ago, aggravated the situation as it brought heavy rains which caused rivers, including the Artibonite River, to burst their banks.

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