Florida woman returns from Haiti with Cholera, is recovering

A Florida woman who visited Haiti has returned from her trip infected with Cholera, an official with the Florida Department of Health has confirmed.

Dr. Thomas Torok says that the woman was visiting family near the Artibonite River, a rural area where the outbreak started. Medical privacy laws prevent the woman from being publicly identified, and officials will only say she is “recovering” from the illness that killed hundreds in Haiti during the recent outbreak of the disease.

According to Dr. Torok, the woman is the only person confirmed infected with the disease in florida, and the risk of the disease spreading is very low:

“We really don’t anticipate that we will see any sustained transmission caused by Haiti in Florida or anywhere else in the United States,” Torok said. “The risk is so low because our water and sanitation systems really minimizes the risk to folks.”

The last Cholera outbreak in the US was approximately a century ago, and eleven people died as a result.

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