Thanks very much for the question.
I want to add, very quickly, on your last question, that the situation for land tenure was very serious before the earthquake, but afterwards, because so many of the government buildings were lost, that added to the situation. The humanitarian community is looking at a whole range of community-based solutions for this, and they've been working closely with locals.
On the cholera epidemic, to date CIDA has contributed $8.5 million to address the needs resulting from the cholera epidemic. Our response began last October, at the height of the epidemic. I think you are familiar that in May-June there was another peak, and there's reference to a potential third peak, which we may be seeing now.
In addition to the $8.5 million, we also supported the deployment of a Canadian Red Cross Society cholera treatment centre in Port-au-Prince. This centre treated 1,500 patients in total. The treatment centre is now operated by the Haitian Red Cross, with support from the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. CIDA also supported the deployment of nine Canadian experts to reinforce the operations of the Pan American Health Organization, UNICEF, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, what we call OCHA.
One of the key results achieved by this support from CIDA is that our partners have treated well over 240,000 cholera patients who had been hospitalized. Probably the most important result is that the fatality rate decreased from 9% to 1.4%. There were over 42,000 children receiving hygiene kits.
Currently PAHO has implemented a disease surveillance and alert system, allowing humanitarian organizations to respond very quickly to new outbreaks. It's being monitored very closely at this time. Our partners are there and they continue to keep their eyes open.
As we look to the next round of humanitarian appeals, we will continue to consider water, sanitation, and hygiene elements to try to prevent any further outbreaks.