The cholera outbreak in Haiti - blamed for 135 deaths - is the most dangerous strain of the disease, the country's health minister has said.
Alex Larsen confirmed tests carried out by the World Health Organisation have revealed the outbreak is the 01 strain.
"We are in a sanitary crisis, this is a new woe for the country which has not seen this disease in the past," he said.
Around 1,000 people have fallen sick and aid groups are rushing in medicine and other supplies.
Many of the sick have converged on a hospital in the seaside city of St Marc, where hundreds of dehydrated patients are lying on blankets in a car park with drips in their arms waiting for treatment.
"We are on maximum alert," said Claude Surena, head of the Haitian Medical Association.
