CDC: Haiti cholera matches South Asian strain

[cory777]

Source: Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – A cholera outbreak that has killed more than 300 people in Haiti matches strains commonly found in South Asia, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.

The finding intensifies scrutiny on a U.N. base above a tributary to the Artibonite River that is home to a contingent of recently arrived peacekeepers from Nepal, a South Asian country where cholera is endemic and which saw outbreaks this summer.

It is also a significant step toward answering one of the most important questions about the burgeoning epidemic: How did cholera, a disease never confirmed to have existed in Haiti, suddenly erupt in the vulnerable country's rural center?

Speculation among Haitians has increasingly focused on the U.N. base. The outbreak began among people who live downstream from where the tributary meets the Artibonite and drank from the river. On Friday, hundreds of protesters marched from the nearby city of Mirebalais to demand the Nepalese peacekeepers be sent home.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101102/ap_on_he_me/cb_haiti_disease_outbreak

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[Hannah Bell]

1. now that is very interesting.

[Lasher]

2. It sure is.

It's too late to send the Nepalese people back home.

[dipsydoodle]

3. This is reminiscent

of saying the French started the fire of London in 1666. If instead of putting all effort into rounding up French people the effort had been put into putting the fire out it wouldn't have lasted 4 days and destroyed most of London at that time.

[Odin2005]

4. Heh, apparently Haitians had the same thoughts I had when I heard this story.

I was thinking possibly came from a SE Asian Blue Helmet, prehaps an asymptomatic carrier.

[hayu_lol]

5. Is anyone immunizing against this cholera strain...

or even just regular strains of the disease?

This is one of the standard immunizations for travel to Asia.