PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Monday, November 5, 2012 - Already facing the loss of 54 lives, more than any other country affected by Hurricane Sandy, Haiti is now suffering a cholera backlash that could add to this death toll.

According to reports from the Associated Press, the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince saw a small increase in the number of people infected by cholera after the destructive rains from Hurricane Sandy.

The international medical group Doctors Without Borders said the group's five cholera treatment centers had at least 457 patients last Monday (October 29), this spiked to 500 patients Tuesday, but spokesperson Mathieu Fortoul said the number of cholera patients had since dropped, with the group's clinics having about 430 patients last Friday.

The increase in cases was wholly unexpected as cholera spreads through water, and Haiti has seen a spike in the number of cases following periods of heavy rainfall. The country is vulnerable in large part because it does not have proper sanitation and sewage systems.

Cholera, an intestinal infection caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholera, has sickened more than 600,000 people and killed more than 7,500 others in Haiti since it surfaced several months after the devastating 2010 earthquake, health officials say.

Many people have attributed the disease's introduction to a unit of U.N. peacekeepers from Nepal, where the disease is endemic.

The rainfall compounded the misery for the some 370,000 people still living in flimsy shelters as a result of the earthquake.

Haiti was spared a direct hit from Hurricane Sandy when it passed to the west the night of October 24, but heavy rain in the storm's outer bands pounded the south and capital for several days.

Along with the high loss of human life, the storm also destroyed 70 percent of the crops in southern Haiti and caused widespread deaths of livestock, authorities say.