Since the disease first appeared in mid-October it has killed 1,344 people as of November 19 in the poverty-stricken and earthquake-ravaged Caribbean nation.

But U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Haiti Nigel Fisher said the real death toll might be "closer to two thousand than one" because of lack of data from remote areas, and the number of cases 60,000-70,000 instead of the official figure of around 50,000.

Addressing a U.N. news conference by video link from Haiti, Fisher said experts from the World Health Organization were now revising their estimate that the diarrheal disease, spread by poor sanitation, would cause 200,000 cases within six months.

"The medical specialists all say that this cholera epidemic will continue through months and maybe a year at least, that we will see literally hundreds of thousands of cases," Fisher said.

Reuters