(CNN) -- United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon made an urgent appeal Friday for more money to fight the cholera epidemic in Haiti that has claimed more than 1,800 lives.
The United Nations had asked for $164 million in mid-November. Ban said that only 20 percent had materialized.
The water-borne disease has not spread to all 10 departments or provinces of the impoverished Caribbean nation, but the latest data from the Ministry of Public Health reported 1,882 cholera deaths and almost 85,000 people sickened. The Pan American Health Organization said the good news is that a smaller proportion of infected people are dying.
In the first weeks of the cholera epidemic, which began in late October, the proportion of hospitalized patients dying of cholera was as high as 9 percent, the health organization said. That number is now down to 3.5 percent.
"This is progress," said Deputy Director Dr. Jon K. Andrus. "There are still too many deaths, and we face many challenges. But the hard work of Haitian doctors, nurses, and community workers and their partners in the international community is, in fact, saving many lives".
But Ban warned that the numbers were rough estimates at best and the outbreak is projected to sicken as many as 650,000 people in the next six months. CNN
