AFP - Haiti's cholera death toll has risen to almost 2,200, but the latest official data on Friday contained encouraging signs that the epidemic could be starting to taper off.
Health ministry figures showed 2,193 people had died and a total of 97,595 infections since the outbreak surfaced in the central Artibonite River valley in mid-October.
Daily death tolls of 27 and 26 for Sunday and Monday respectively -- the last two days for which figures were available -- suggested the deadly waterborne disease could be relinquishing its grip on the quake-hit nation.
The numbers represented the first time for a month that authorities had recorded less than 30 people dying from cholera on two consecutive days.
The general pattern has been promising since the start of December with death rates in most of Haiti's nine departments slowing, and the daily November tolls -- of 60, 70 and even 80 and above -- now a thing of the past.
The outbreak, Haiti's first in more than a century, spawned deadly anti-UN riots last month as a desperate populace turned its anger on international peacekeepers accused of bringing the disease into the country.
The Nepalese army has reacted angrily and said there is no evidence to support allegations the cholera emanated from septic tanks at their base in the Artibonite valley.
The United Nations has also repeatedly insisted there is no proof any of its troops were responsible for introducing the infection to Haiti, but many local people still blame the peacekeepers.
A team of US and Haitian researchers confirmed earlier this week that the outbreak was likely sparked by a human source from outside the region.
The study published in the New England Journal of Medicine was released just days after a French epidemiologist pointed the finger directly at the Nepalese peacekeepers.
While the researchers did not make the exact same assessment, they did say the strain of bacteria likely came from South Asia, not Latin America, and looked similar to a type of cholera found in Bangladesh this past decade.
Leading US conservative politician Sarah Palin plans to visit Haiti this weekend with an evangelical Christian relief organization, Samaritan's Purse, to bolster the anti-cholera drive.
The Palin visit comes despite simmering unrest in the wake of contested November 28 presidential elections.
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