CDC says Haiti’s cholera is part of an old pandemic
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The cholera epidemic that has killed 1,110 people and sickened thousands in Haiti is part of a 49-year-old global pandemic and likely was brought to the Caribbean country in a single instance, scientists say…But that was all it took to set off the epidemic, with an already weak sanitation system thrown into chaos by a devastating earthquake in January…
The epidemic in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere could easily worsen and cholera could linger there for years, they said…
CDC infectious disease specialist Dr. Scott Dowell said it may be impossible to trace how the cholera came to Haiti. An infected person, contaminated food or even a ship’s bilge water could all carry the bacteria, Dowell said.
Genetic fingerprints show the outbreak can be traced to a pandemic that started in Indonesia 49 years ago and has spread around the world, the CDC and PAHO said…
“As far as stamping it out or eliminating it from Haiti, we are not hopeful about that,” Dowell said. “We feel that Haiti is going to be dealing with cholera for several years or several months at least.”
Cholera is spread when the bacteria get into water, almost always via human waste.
Haiti had not seen cholera for 100 years but experts say conditions are ideal for its spread — lack of proper sewerage, people forced to defecate in the open, a tightly packed population, torrential rains and a lack of clean water.
A centuries-long history of political corruption, a culture constantly misled and misdirected by priests, politicians and populist hustlers – and Haiti was a Tsunami of self-destruction waiting to fall upon its people.
Within a context of American and European nations that couldn’t have cared less over time, the poor population of Haiti was always on track for this sort of disaster.
