One day later, the first cholera outbreak in Haiti in at least a century was officially announced. To date, over 470,000 cases of cholera have been reported in Haiti with 6,631 attributable deaths.After one year, this marks the worst cholera outbreak in recent history, as well as the best documented cholera outbreak in modern public health.Since the beginning of the outbreak, CDC has worked closely with MSPP to combat the cholera epidemic and reduce the impact of the disease. Cholera is an acute, diarrheal illness caused by infection of the intestine with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. 2  An estimated 3-5 million cases and over 100,000 deaths occur each year around the world.