Cholera specialist, Dr Daniele Lantagne, is the latest to point out that the evidence regarding Haiti's cholera outbreak points towards the UN peacekeepers from Nepal. "The most likely source of the introduction of cholera into Haiti was someone infected with the Nepal strain of cholera and associated with the United Nations Mirabalais camp." said Dr Latagne to the BBC.
The evidence itself is not new, rather it is the change of view from Dr Latagne that is getting the attention. She was a part of the UN panel of experts who came back with murky results regarding the cause of the cholera outbreak. There was some admission that the UN peacekeepers may have played a role, but the final report could not put the majority of the blame on any single group.
Genome data and other evidence seems to have tipped the scale in Dr Latagne's mind. Two years since the outbreak, there is still a debate over the source of what some believe is the first ever cholera outbreak in Haiti.
There have been nearly 600,000 cases of cholera and 7,585 deaths since the onset of the outbreak.The number of cases and the fatality rate are on a steady decline, but cholera continues to be a problem with just over 6,000 cases reported per month.
2 comments:
Thanks for posting this. I have to admit, I don't quite understand the end-goal of the investigations or what is at stake. Will they be able to better treat the cholera? Will the UN change something about it's people-moving procedures? Shouldn't they have done that already? If indeed the cholera from is from Nepal, is that a fail or a non-existence of SOP? Is this mostly about the monetary claim against the UN? Thanks!
Hey Heather. There are a lot of issues going on at once. First is the simple fact that the UN will not take the blame. That does then lead into the burden of cost and taking the lead for the response. There is a lawsuit against the UN because of this, but that in some part is due to a general level of distrust with the UN peacekeeping mission by Haitians.
To me, the important aspect is accountability. The evidence, as I understand it, points quite clearly to the UN peacekeepers. A major and important international body should be able to shoulder the blame and admit when mistakes have been made.
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