Haiti`s cholera outbreak has spread to the capital Port-au-Prince, putting the lives of millions of homeless people at risk.

People suspected to have cholera are treated in a Haitian hospital

Health authorities said a three-year-old boy who has not left the city in the last year had caught the disease.

He was tested and treated after being taken to hospital suffering from severe dehydration, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.

More than 100 suspected cases of cholera among residents of the capital are being investigated.

The outbreak has already killed at least 544 people in other areas of Haiti, according to health ministry executive director Gabriel Timothee.

He said many of the patients in hospital in Port-au-Prince are believed to have recently arrived from the Artibonite Valley, an agricultural area where more than 6,400 of Haiti`s known 8,138 cases have been recorded.

The water-borne disease had never been reported in Haiti before its appearance last month.

Officials are concerned that floods triggered by Hurricane Tomas last week could exacerbate the spread of the disease, which is transmitted through the consumption of faecal matter contained in contaminated water or food.

The storm severely affected the temporary camps set up for more than one million refugees after the devastating earthquake in January.

Dozens of charities and humanitarian groups are still based in Haiti and have been teaching residents of the camps about measures to prevent cholera spreading.

Standing water, mud, lack of rubbish collection and limited sanitation availability make the camps especially susceptible.

Public health experts have called for an investigation into the origin of the outbreak.
sections: Nature & Health, World News