The death toll¹ from the current cholera² epidemic³ in Haiti has exceeded 500, the country's health ministry⁴ has said.

海地卫生部称，霍乱蔓延导致的死亡人数已经超过了500人。

Fifty-nine people had died up until and including Thursday, and 617 others had been infected, bringing the total affected⁵ to 7,359, the ministry added.

The news came as the local authorities and relief agencies attempted to get clean drinking water to those areas worse affected by Hurricane Tomas.

The storm caused flooding and left eight people dead in western Haiti.

The charity, Save the Children, said that in Leogane, the streets had been turned into "rivers" and some 35,000 people had been affected.

The BBC's Laura Trevelyan in the town said the water reached her knees, and that people were afraid of the risk of disease.

There was also flooding in Les Cayes, Jacmel and Gonaives, while many mountain towns have been cut off by flooded roads and landslides⁶.

'Additional risk'

There was widespread relief on Friday after Hurricane Tomas passed without destroying the tented camps in and around the capital, Port-au-Prince, housing about 1.3 million survivors⁷ of January's earthquake.

However, attention soon turned to preventing the spread of cholera（霍乱） , which is caused by bacteria transmitted through contaminated（受污染的） water or food, in the unsanitary（不卫生的） conditions.

Cholera causes diarrhoea（腹泻） and vomiting⁸, leading to severe dehydration⁹（脱水） , but can kill quickly. It is treated easily through rehydration（复水，再水化） and antibiotics¹⁰.

A spokesman for the Pan-American Health Organisation¹¹, Christian¹² Lindmeier, told the Reuters news agency: "Cholera is a water-borne disease and so additional water means additional risk."

"We do expect the infection rate to jump up due to the flooding and to the bad sanitation¹³（环境卫生） conditions in many areas," he said.

In the town of Saint Marc, in the northern region where the outbreak began three weeks ago, a Cuban doctor in charge of the local hospital said there had been more cases of cholera since the hurricane.

"The situation here - after the storm - has worsened," Dr Buenaventura Sanchez told the Associated Press.