More than 1,100 people have died of cholera in Haiti since it first broke out in October. Another 18,000 people have become sick because of the intestinal disease that causes severe diarrhoea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Cholera is easily treated but can be fatal if not detected early.

“I am alarmed at the rapid spread of cholera in Haiti and the lack of capacity and supplies to properly prevent and treat this life-threatening disease,” said Franklin Graham, president and head of the relief and development organisation Samaritan’s Purse.

Samaritan’s Purse has 295 staff working in Haiti who have treated more than 2,000 cholera patients at the organisation’s two treatment facilities.

Graham noted that his group’s assessments lead him to believe that the number of cholera deaths is “significantly understated”. He urged the US military to begin emergency airlifts to provide needed supplies to treat cholera and for Haitian authorities to expedite the customs clearance process to allow relief supplies into the country.

Joining Samaritan’s Purse medical team in Haiti Saturday was a seven-member doctor and nurse team from HCJB Global Hands in Quito, Ecuador. The medical team brings about 500 pounds of medicines to reinforce the cholera response by Samaritan’s Purse. Cholera can be treated with oral hydration salts.

Graham called upon Christians to pray as he expressed his sadness over the suffering that Haitians have faced this year.

“Out of the abundance that we have been given, we should share with those who have so very little," he said.

The World Health Organisation said that Haiti’s cholera outbreak would inevitably spread to the Dominican Republic. However, it does not expect the disease to be as widespread as sanitary conditions are better there.