Port-Au-Prince , Haiti ( CNN ) -- Health and hospital officials in Haiti braced for the worse Monday , fearing the hurricane that battered the Caribbean nation over the weekend could worsen the cholera outbreak that has killed hundreds of people and hospitalized thousands since it began last month . The official death toll attributed to the outbreak was 544 , with more than 8,000 confirmed cases , Health Minister Alex Larsen told CNN . On Monday , Dr. Toni Eyssallenne of Hospital Bernard Mevs confirmed the first case of cholera -- in a 3-year-old boy -- to originate and manifest entirely in Port-au-Prince . Previous cases had been centered in Haiti 's Artibonite and Central Plateau regions , including the city of St. Marc , north of the nation 's capital . Until now , health officials said that those being treated for cholera in Port-au-Prince all contracted the disease elsewhere . The young Port-au-Prince boy lived in a tent city across the street from a place that sells macaroni , and he had not traveled in over a year nor had he had contact with people from St. Marc or the Artibonite region , Dr. Eyssallenne said . After suffering from nausea and diarrhea , the boy was treated and released from the hospital after his condition improved . This was one of scores of tests being carried out on 91 residents of the capital -- all of whom live in or near the city 's densely populated Cite Soleil slum , Larsen said . Except for one person who died over the weekend , all the others have recovered , he said . Hurricane Tomas ' trek past Haiti killed 20 people and injured another 36 , a Communications Ministry official said Monday . Seven people were missing and 5,954 were homeless , the official said . Health officials fear that the water dumped by the storm will worsen the outbreak . The concern is that overflow from latrines and septic tanks could contaminate the supply of fresh drinking water and contribute to the spread of the bacteria . In the capital , the canals were not overflowing , said American Red Cross spokeswoman Andrea Koppel . But that was not the case in cities west of the capital , which bore the brunt of Hurricane Tomas , she said . Still , even Port-au-Prince looks and smells like a dump -- a caldron of water , garbage and human waste . `` We get used to it , '' said one resident . Ten months after a magnitude-7 earthquake laid waste to much of the nation , people compete with animals scavenging through the ubiquitous dumps for scraps of food . `` The quick solution is management , '' said Environment Minister Jean Marie Claude Germain . `` Management meaning that you have a structure in place , but the structure was not conceived with the slums in mind . '' But most of the residents of Port-au-Prince live in slums . `` We 're working on it , '' Germain said . `` We will work with the private sector . '' CNN 's Paula Newton contributed to this story .
NEW : Hospital confirms first case of cholera to originate entirely in Port-au-Prince . The disease is spread by contaminated water and sewage, which has been a major problem for the Haitian government since it was declared an international disaster last year. More than 8,000 cases have been confirmed . `` We 're working on it , '' Haiti 's environment minister says of the nation 's slums .