UN troops
brought cholera to Haiti: report
Wednesday December 08, 2010 12:35:17 PM,
EFE
|
Paris:
The cholera epidemic that has caused more than 2,000 deaths in
Haiti was introduced by Nepalese troops serving with the UN forces
in the impoverished Caribbean country, according to a French
medical report.
The disease first appeared in the small central town of Mirebalais,
where the Nepalese soldiers set up their camp, and it was first
noted just a few days after their arrival, sources close to the
probe told EFE here Tuesday.
The report by Renaud Piarroux, who is considered to be one of the
world's leading specialists in the study of cholera, leaves no
doubt as to the origin of the disease, the sources said.
The UN Stabilization Mission for Haiti, or Minustah, has denied
that the epidemic was introduced by its forces.
The French foreign ministry confirmed Tuesday that it transmitted
the Piarroux report to UN headquarters in New York. The study was
commissioned by France at the request of Haitian authorities, a
French diplomatic spokesman said.
According to the report, the appearance of the disease coincides
with the arrival of the Nepalese soldiers, who come from a country
where there is currently a cholera epidemic.
There is no other way to explain the rapid emergence and strength
of the cholera outbreak in a small town with just a few dozen
inhabitants, Piarroux and his team concluded.
The report also analyses the manner of propagation of the disease,
noting that wastewater from the Nepalese encampment drained into
the same river from which the town's residents draw their water
for household use.
That watercourse also facilitated the wider spread of the
epidemic, which so far has infected more than 90,000 people in
Haiti, a country still struggling to recover from the Jan 12
earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and left a million
homeless.
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