Authorities said the victims, most of them were reportedly practitioners of a local faith, were killed by machete-wielding lynch mobs and their bodies were burned in the open, according to news reaching here.

Rumors began to spread last week in the remote southwestern Grand Anse region that the priests had fashioned a magic powder to spread the disease.

The government issued a statement on Thursday, saying "There is no cholera powder, nor cholera spirit" and the priests "can neither treat cholera, nor make a powder that gives cholera."

"The only way to protect one's self against cholera is to observe the principles of hygiene," the statement said.

As of Friday, the fast-killing cholera epidemic had claimed 1,882 victims since its outbreak in mid-October in northern Haiti.

About 84,300 more people were infected with the disease and a majority of provinces in the Caribbean nation have reported cholera cases, official sources said.

Meanwhile, the disease has stretched to neighboring Dominican Republic, which has already announced a red alert in regions bordering Haiti.