No group, individual responsible for Haiti Cholera

KATHMANDU, May 5: An independent panel set up by the United Nations to investigate the source of the cholera outbreak that has claimed more than 4,500 lives in Haiti since it emerged last October has found that a "confluence of circumstances," and not the fault of any group or individual, was responsible for the fast-spreading outbreak.



The report of the four-member panel of experts, released on Wednesday, said the evidence found "overwhelmingly supports" the conclusion that the source was human activity contaminating a tributary of the Artibonite River with a pathogenic strain of cholera.[break] It further said the bacteria of cholera did not originate from the native environment of Haiti, but from a strain "very similar but not identical" to South Asian strains currently circulating within Asia.



Nearly 300,000 Haitians have been sickened since the outbreak started and fresh infections and deaths continue to occur.



"The introduction of this cholera strain as a result of environmental contamination with faeces could not have been the source of such an outbreak without simultaneous water and sanitation and health-care system deficiencies," the report concludes.



"These deficiencies, coupled with conducive environmental and epidemiological conditions, allowed the spread of the Vibrio cholerae organism in the environment.



According to UN News Center, the report includes a series of recommendations for the UN and the Haitian government so they can help prevent the future introduction and spread of cholera within the impoverished Caribbean country.

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