Health officials in Haiti have began vaccinating thousands of people, mainly in the slum areas of the capital 18 months after a cholera outbreak killed more than 7,000 people and infected more than half a million others.

The organizers of the vaccination campaign, were given approval earlier this week when a national bioethics committee sanctioned their plan to use all available doses of the cheapest cholera vaccine to immunize about one per cent of the population.

The second dose will be administered in two weeks.

The organizers, Partners in Health and Gheskio, which also collaborate on H.I.V. and AIDS care, said they want to carry out the project before more rains hit the impoverished CARICOM country.


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