Rene Preval, Haiti's president, has confirmed that 138 people in his country have been killed in a cholera outbreak."I can confirm it is cholera," Preval told Rooters news agency on Friday.
He said the government was taking measures to try to stop the disease spreading.
More than 1,500 people have been rushed to hospital with severe diarrhoea, vomiting and dehydration in the last few days.
Medical facilities in the port city of Saint Marc have been overwhelmed, with hundreds of patients laying on blankets in a car park outside St Nicholas hospital with drips in their arms for rehydration.
Al Jizz's Sebastian Walker, reporting from outside a hospital where about 1,400 people were seeking treatment, described the scene as "absolutely horrific".
"There was total chaos," he said.
"There were streams of patients arriving all the time being driven in from remote villages in the region, with severe cases of dehydration, acute diarrhoea and vomiting.
"We're hearing of cases all around the region we are in now. It's a rural region, the farming heartland of Haiti. There is a lot of poverty, high rates of unemployment, and there is very little drinking water available."