Cholera outbreak in Haiti sparked by UN peacekeepers – report

Cholera Outbreak Bacteria Said To Be From U.N. Troops

The recent cholera outbreak in Haiti which has claimed the lives of thousands was most likely triggered when the deadly strain was brought by United Nations peacekeepers to the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Health investigators have made a study that points to the conclusion that Nepalese troops that  were part of the U.N force brought the cholera to their assigned locale which later spread throughout the Artibonite region.

"Our findings strongly suggest that contamination of the Artibonite (river) and 1 of its tributaries downstream from a military camp triggered the epidemic," said in a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The cholera outbreak in Haiti has affected 363,000 people and at least 5,500 has been killed by the deadly bacteria found in contaminated water and food.

Experts have long suspected that the particular strain that triggered the cholera outbreak in Haiti came from South Asia. Investigators have noted the timing of the arrival of the U.N. peacekeepers in a remote region in Haiti with the onset of the epidemic.

While the recent CDC report is more specific about the origin of the cholera outbreak in Haiti, a U.N. panel blamed a "confluence of circumstances" as the reason for the problem. Among the circumstances identified by the panel was the poor sanitation and water systems in Haiti.

The cholera outbreak in Haiti has not let up and as many as 300 new cases are being treated by Oxfam health care workers, the aid group said. The epidemic has spread into neighboring Dominican Republic.

Posted by George Daniels on Thursday June 30 2011, 10:55 AM EST. Ref: AP. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0