Cholera Kills 138 in Haiti

A fast-moving outbreak of what officials believe is cholera has killed at least 138 people in central Haiti within 48 hours, and infected more than a thousand others. The outbreak, the first since January's earthquake, has overwhelmed public health facilities, the BBC reports. The infection, spread through contaminated food and water, causes severe diarrhea and kills quickly if left untreated. Authorities are rushing antibiotics and rehydration supplies to the affected area.

"It's bad. They were just putting people on the side of the road. They look like skeletons," presidential candidate Charles Henri Baker told the Miami Herald after a visit to the region. Baker says he used his campaign truck to transport sick residents, and children died in the back of the truck before they reached the hospital. "I don't even feel like campaigning anymore. It's unbelievable when they tell you the number of people who are sick," he said.

(More Haiti stories.)