(bbc.co.uk)
Aid agencies in Haiti say they fear that suspected new cases of cholera might mean the epidemic is moving closer to the capital Port-au-Prince.
Suspected cases are being investigated in three new departments, health officials in Haiti said on Wednesday.
They said nearly 300 people were now known to have died in the cholera outbreak.
The UN is investigating allegations that excrement from Nepalese peacekeepers caused the epidemic.
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Sarah Jacobs from the aid organisation Save the Children told the BBC that 174 new cases of cholera were being investigated in the area around Arcahaie, a village in the northern Port-au-Prince district and about an hour's drive from the capital.
"These suspected cases are much nearer the capital," Ms Jacobs said late on Wednesday.
"So if this is actually confirmed as cholera as we suspect it will be, it means that the cholera has spread, it's that much nearer to the capital. And that's the thing we really need to avoid," she added.
So far a handful of cases have been reported in Port-au-Prince, but they were all people who had contracted the disease in other parts of the country.
"We really don't know about communities where diarrhoea cases are occurring but not reaching health centres” - Jon Kim Andrus PAHO
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