UN probes Haiti base for cholera source
Cholera outbreak kills 303, leaves 4,722 in hospital
Last Updated:
Wednesday, October 27, 2010 | 11:42 PM ET
The Associated Press
UN investigators took samples of foul-smelling waste trickling behind
a Nepalese peacekeeping base toward an infected river system Wednesday,
following accusations that excrement from the new unit caused the
cholera epidemic that has sickened more than 4,000 people in the
earthquake-ravaged country.
Associated Press journalists who were visiting the base unannounced happened
upon the investigators.
Mission spokesman Vincenzo Pugliese confirmed that the military team
was testing for cholera — the first public acknowledgment that the
12,000-member force is investigating allegations that its base played a
role in the outbreak.
Meanwhile, the epidemic continued to spread, with cases confirmed in
two new departments in Haiti's north and northeast, said UN Office for
the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs spokeswoman Imogen Wall.
At least 303 people have died and 4,722 have been taken to hospital.
International aid workers and the United Nations are focusing their
efforts on stemming the spread of the outbreak, first noted on Oct. 20.
But Haitians are increasingly turning their attention to its origins:
How did a disease which has not been seen in Haiti since the early 20th
century suddenly erupt in the countryside?
UN peacekeepers from Guatemala take a sample of excrement next to the Nepali UN
base in Mirebalais, Haiti, on Wednesday. (J.Katz/Associated Press)The mission
strongly denies its base was a cause of the infection.
Pugliese said civilian engineers collected samples from the base last
Friday that tested negative for cholera and the mission's military
force commander ordered the additional tests to confirm. He said no
members of the Nepalese battalion, whose current members arrived in
early October for a six-month rotation, have the disease.
The unit's commander declined to comment. River infected Local
politicians, including a powerful senator and the mayor of Mirebalais,
are pointing the finger at the Nepalese peacekeeping base, which is
perched above a source of the Meille River, a tributary to the
Artibonite River on Haiti's central plateau.
The Artibonite River has been the source of most infections, which
remain concentrated in the rural area surrounding it — mostly down river
from the mouth of the Meille.
"They are located exactly where the sickness started," said Mirebalais Mayor
Laguerre Lochard, who is also running for Senate.
Area residents are also blaming the base. A young man walked by its
gate laughing and chanting, "Co-co-cholera. Cholera MINUSTAH" —
referring to the peacekeeping mission by its French initials.
Cholera is almost unheard of in the Western Hemisphere. It is endemic
to Nepal, which suffered outbreaks this summer. A recent article in the
Japanese Journal of Infectious Diseases about outbreaks in 2008-09 said
the strain found by researchers was Vibrio cholerae O1 Ogawa biotype El Tor.
That is the same strain that has been identified in Haiti, said
epidemiologist Eric Mintz of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. But he cautioned that the strain is common and the
description too general to be a "smoking gun" that would identify the
strain's country of origin.
http://www.cbc.ca/m/rich/news/story/2010/10/27/haiti-cholera-peacekeeper-base.html
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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