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Wednesday, December 08, 2010

UN peacekeepers likely cause of Haiti cholera outbreak

By Jonathan M Katz
11:38 AM Wednesday Dec 8, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE - A contingent of UN peacekeepers is the likely source of a cholera outbreak in Haiti that has killed at least 2,000 people, a French scientist said in a report obtained by The Associated Press.

Epidemiologist Renaud Piarroux concluded that the cholera originated in a tributary of Haiti's Artibonite river, next to a UN base outside the town of Mirebalais.

He was sent by the French government to assist Haitian health officials in determining the source of the outbreak, a French Foreign Ministry official said.

"No other hypothesis could be found to explain the outbreak of a cholera epidemic in this village ... not affected by the earthquake earlier this year and located dozens of kilometres from the coast and (tent) camps," he wrote in a report that has not been publicly released.

The report also calls for a further investigation of the outbreak, improved medical surveillance and sanitation procedures for UN peacekeeping troops and better support for Haitian health authorities.

Full Article nzherald

6 comments:

  1. that doesn't make any sense..but very sad..them poor people

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  2. YDG - It makes sense to me.
    "Epidemiologist Renaud Piarroux concluded that the cholera originated in a tributary of Haiti's Artibonite river, next to a UN base outside the town of Mirebalais."

    A bunch of UN people that didn't properly set up sanitation, their ungodly amount of shit goes into the river, the people drink that water and there you go, cholera.

    "We're from the UN and we're here to help!" (Help you die that is.)

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  3. I'm with Yellow - even with the explanation, it don't make no sense!

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  4. Crazy4 - I don't get where you are coming from. UN feces going into a river that they drink from can't cause cholera? What do you think happened? Are you going to look into it and find another explanation? I hope so, then maybe I could understand your mind.

    I'm not dead set on this explanation but how do you just dismiss it without any alternative explanation?

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  5. Well, now that you put it that way.....Since I don't even really know where cholera comes from - I mean do normal healthy people carry it? Whey the UN peacekeepers, why not the Doctors Without Borders camp or some other camp? But I am not going to research it, so.......

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well, now that you put it that way.....Since I don't even really know where cholera comes from - I mean do normal healthy people carry it? Whey the UN peacekeepers, why not the Doctors Without Borders camp or some other camp? But I am not going to research it, so.......

    ReplyDelete

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