HTH -- Haiti Earthquake

June 30, 2011. UN peacekeepers the source of cholera outbreak in Haiti

SOURCE: Altegrity Risk International

According to a new report published in the journal of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a UN peacekeeping mission brought a cholera strain to Haiti that has killed thousands of people, sources said on June 30th. Nepalese peacekeepers at a base near the town of Mirebalais brought with them the cholera, which spread through the waterways of the Artibonite region and elsewhere. The report said there was "an exact correlation" in time and place between the arrival of a Nepalese battalion from an area of its South Asian homeland that was experiencing a cholera outbreak and the appearance of the first cases in the Meille river a few days later. The disease has killed more than 5,500 people and sickened more than 363,000 others since it was discovered in October 2010, according to the Haitian government.