The World Bank said the new project "will boost the country's medical response to the disease while expanding its capacity to monitor and prevent such outbreaks."

The program is part of the World Bank's $479 million reconstruction support following the devastating earthquake a year ago that left about one million people homeless and living in shelters in the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.

Citing the latest United Nations data, the World Bank said that since the onset of the epidemic in October, about 149,000 cholera cases have been reported in Haiti and more than 3,000 people have died.

"Haiti needs all the help it can get to respond to the deadly cholera epidemic which is ravaging parts of the country," Ronald Baudin, Haiti's finance minister, said in the statement.

The $15 million grant is aimed at quickly containing the spread of the deadly disease by financing public and non-public efforts "on the ground" to respond to emergency cholera needs, including urgent care and treatment and preventive measures, the bank said.

The new funding also will strengthen the government's emergency response capacity.

"Key to the success of these efforts is the joint response to the emergency, involving not only agencies and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) but, especially, the Haitians themselves," said Alexandre Abrantes, the World Bank's special envoy to Haiti.

Abrantes said the new grant also will be used to contract experienced NGOs for immediate cholera response activities.

Haiti's January 12, 2010 earthquake crippled the country's public infrastructure, killing up to 30 percent of Haiti's most senior public officials, while destroying or putting out of commission water and sanitation systems, the World Bank said.

"One year later, the displaced are still living in temporary camps, with unsafe water and sanitation, a breeding ground for cholera."

earlier related report
World Bank gives $15 million to fight Haiti cholera
Washington (AFP) Jan 18, 2011 - The World Bank Tuesday announced a $15 million grant to Haiti to fight a persistent cholera epidemic, which has claimed the lives of more than 3,700 people since October.

The funds, said the organization in statement, will go towards public campaigns to prevent infection and increase the capacity of Haiti's health ministry to deal with the emergency.

The World Bank approved an extra $5 million grant Tuesday to go with $10 million first pledged in October to make a total donation of $15 million to combat the health crisis, the statement said.

After the January 2010 earthquake, the World Bank Group committed 479 million dollars to the first 24 months of reconstruction, the body said, adding that a year later two thirds of the pledge has been delivered.

Haiti's cholera death toll has risen to 3,838, according to government figures, in what is a persistent but apparently declining daily death toll.

The figure marks the total since the outbreak was first discovered in mid-October up to January 11. Total infections rose to 188,967 in Haiti, including 105,827 people who have been treated in hospital.

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