A woman who recently visited relatives in Haiti has become the first person to take cholera to the southern US state of Florida from the Caribbean nation, local US media said.

"She's doing quite well," doctor Thomas Torok, a cholera expert in the state's health department, told The Miami Herald.

"Additional cases are under investigation," he added.

The woman has not been identified, although Torok said she does not have a job that brings her into contact with the public. There is therefore little chance she will transmit the disease to others.

The Miami Herald said the woman's family live in the Artibonite Valley, the source of Haiti's cholera outbreak which has now claimed some 1,100 lives and sickened over 18,300 people.

The woman returned from Haiti about a week ago showing cholera symptoms, Torok told the Herald, and tests sent to the US Centers for Disease Control came back positive for cholera.

Florida officials have already been urged to test people quickly if they show signs of cholera as the state has a large number of about 240,000 Haitian-born residents and many of them travel back and forth to the neighboring country.