More Misery For Haiti.

In January 2010 Haiti was hit by an earthquake that killed 250,000 people. Then in October it suffered an isolated Cholera outbreak. In November hurricane Tomas brought with it torrential rain and flooding that spread the Cholera bacteria meaning that now the entire country is at risk of infection.

So far there have been 17,000 Cholera cases causing 1,100 deaths. Normally Cholera kills 1 of every 2 people it infects. The fact that Haiti's outbreak is only killing around 1 in every 15 people means that despite the deaths MINUSTAH and the other aid agencies in the country are doing a fantastic job treating the outbreak.

This good work is being made almost impossible because Haitians are starting to panic and riot. Already this week this violence has killed at least 10 more people, prevented aid agencies from going into certain neighbourhoods to treat patients and has forced the closure of the country's airport stopping medical supplies being delivered. The reason for the panic is that the strain of Cholera has recently been identified as the South East Asian strain. Some of the UN peacekeepers in Haiti are from Nepal in Central Asia so some people believe that the UN peacekeepers brought Cholera to Haiti on purpose.

This is simply not true. The strain of Cholera (Vibrio Cholerae 0319) is only known as South East Asian Cholera because it was first identified by scientists working in a laboratory in Japan. They were working on samples taken from a Cholera outbreak in Indonesia which is about 40,000km away from Nepal.

Ogawa Cholera, as it's more properly known, is normally transmitted between countries by the bacteria moving through water either in the sea in the rain. This means that it is the most common strain of Cholera in the World with outbreaks in every continent on the earth including the outbreaks in Zimbabwe in Africa in 2003 and 2008.

Wherever it breaks out the only way that Cholera can be defeated is by people practicing good personal hygiene. This means following four simple rules;

1. Do not shit in the water supply. All human feces need to be buried in the ground at least 30m away from the nearest river or well.

2. Boil all water before use. This includes water used for washing, brushing teeth and cleaning cooking pots. If aid agencies are able to give out water purification products follow the instructions given out with those products. Once treated keep the clean water in sealed, clean containers.

3. Do not eat raw meat, fish or vegetables. If you have not seen it being prepared safely do not eat it.

4. Wash your hands as often as possible. If soap is not available first scrub your hands with sand or ash from a fire before rinsing them with boiled water. This needs to be done after every time you use the toilet of touch someone infected with Cholera.