Thread: Haitians attack UN workers, blame them for cholera

And now it's here!...

Officials Confirm 3 Cases of Cholera in NYC
February 06, 2011 | New York City officials have confirmed that three New Yorkers contracted cholera while in the Dominican Republic for a wedding.

The Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, where thousands have died from cholera. A medical epidemiologist for the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene told The New York Times Saturday that all three New Yorkers who were infected have recovered.

Dr. Sharon Balter said the city typically sees an average of one case of cholera per year. City health officials are now working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to determine whether the current strain is similar to the one that has been raging in Haiti since October.

Three cholera deaths have been reported in the Dominican Republic.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/0...#ixzz1DLzqQgqe

Outbreak bigger than first thought...

Haiti Cholera Epidemic Could Sicken 779,000 This Year
TUESDAY, March 15,`11 -- New estimate much higher than U.N. projections, which were used to allocate resources

The cholera epidemic in Haiti this year will be far worse than the 400,000 cases predicted by the United Nations, new study findings indicate. There could be nearly twice as many cases of the potentially deadly diarrheal disease -- an estimated 779,000 -- between March and November of this year, according to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and Harvard Medical School.

The discrepancy is important because U.N. projections determine the allocation of resources to fight the disease, said the authors of the study, published March 16 in The Lancet. "The epidemic is not likely to be short-term," Dr. Sanjay Basu, a UCSF medical resident, said in a university news release. "It is going to be larger than predicted in terms of sheer numbers and will last far longer than the initial projections."

The cholera epidemic erupted in Haiti after last year's devastating earthquake. Cholera -- spread from person-to-person through contaminated food and water -- can be deadly if untreated. In most cases, treatment for the diarrhea caused by the disease involves rehydration with salty liquids.

Late last year, the U.N. projected that a total of 400,000 people in Haiti would eventually become infected with cholera. They reached that total by assuming that cholera would infect 2 to 4 percent of Haiti's population of 10 million. But the U.N. estimate did not take into account existing disease trends, or factors such as where water was contaminated, how the disease is transmitted, or human immunity to cholera, Basu said.

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Originally Posted by DoesHomeRenovations

The blacks are clearly incapable...

What stupidity and irrational animus you're sporting.

Haitians were right after all...

Haiti cholera outbreak linked to peacekeepers, UN admits
05 May 2011 - Last year's deadly cholera outbreak in Haiti, which killed 4,500 people, was linked to Nepalese UN peacekeepers who were stationed at a base in the country, a UN panel has conceded.

The panel found that “evidence overwhelmingly supports” the conclusion that the epidemic began via the contamination of the Artibonite River near the troops' base, with a south Asian strain of cholera. In a report published on Wednesday night, it also listed a series of measures that the UN should introduce to ensure its peacekeepers do not introduce cholera to the countries in which they work. But the panel refused to single out the troops for blame, stating that Haitians – who had recently suffered a devastating earthquake – should not have been using the river for drinking or washing.

The group, convened by Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary-General, insisted the crisis was due to a “confluence of circumstances” and “not the fault of, or deliberate action of, a group or individual”. Haitians began contracting cholera, a water-borne disease, in October 2010, 10 months after the country was struck by a devastating earthquake that killed an estimated 250,000 people. Various theories circulated about how the disease, which had not been detected in Haiti in a century, had arrived. These included the evolution of existing diseases or the result of tectonic plate shifts.

But most fingers were pointed at Nepalese UN troops at a base in Mirebalais, around the centre of the country. Nepal had recently suffered an outbreak, and Haitian cases began soon after the troops' arrival. A report published in December by Renaud Piarroux, a French specialist who is one of the world's most eminent cholera experts, said that the troops were indeed most likely to blame. Dr Piarroux, who was sent by France to assist Haitian officials, concluded the epidemic originated in a tributary of Haiti's Artibonite river, next to the UN base. “No other hypothesis could be found,” he said.

Protesters in Port-au-Prince armed with rocks attacked UN facilities and personnel in revenge. The new UN report found that the sanitation conditions at the peacekeepers' camp “were not sufficient to prevent fecal contamination” of the river's tributary system. It also said that bacteria from Haitian cases was found to be “very similar, but not identical, to the South Asian strains of cholera”, confirming that the outbreak “did not originate from the native environs of Haiti”.

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Predicting cholera...

Scientists Find Temperature, Rainfall Can Predict Cholera
June 06, 2011 - Slight rise in temperature can double number of cases

cientists studying temperature and rainfall patterns in areas that later had cholera outbreaks say small increases in warmth and wetness are followed by a surge in cholera cases a few months later. The information could give public health authorities a new tool to help battle this serious disease. According to the World Health Organization, more than 100,000 people die from cholera each year, despite a vaccine which can prevent infection and simple treatment that works most of the time. Advance notice of an outbreak might help in the battle against the acute diarrheal disease.

Now, an international team working in Tanzania has found that rising temperature and increased rainfall can signal a coming surge in cholera cases. "What these authors from the International Vaccine Institute in [South] Korea, as well as the University of North Carolina, and the Ministry of Health in Zanzibar in Tanzania have shown," says cholera expert Peter Hotez, "is that a one degree increase in temperature can ultimately result in a two-fold increase in the number of cholera cases." Hotez is president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, which published the research in its journal.

He says that previous research had established that the Vibrio cholerae bacteria can thrive in the gut of a tiny aquatic animal called a copepod. "So the rationale for looking at temperature is because we know that increases in temperature can result in proliferation of these copepods and therefore create new niches for the Vibrio cholerae to replicate." Cholera is typically spread through contaminated water, and with the bacteria proliferating when temperatures and rainfall increase, the number of infections also increases. As global temperatures have risen in the past decade, so have the number of cholera cases, according to the WHO. And Hotez says the nature of the outbreaks is changing, too.

"Now we're seeing long and very protracted outbreaks of cholera, like the one that's been occurring in Haiti and now the Dominican Republic. For instance, the epidemic in Zimbabwe lasted a year and caused 4,000 deaths, and we're probably seeing something of similar magnitude in Haiti." Lead author Rita Reyburn and colleagues point out that climate scientists are predicting a rise in global mean temperatures over the next century of between one and six degrees Celsius. The authors say that suggests the "possibility of increased cholera incidence in many resource-poor regions of the world."

Source

UN needs to step up an' take responsibility...

UN 'should take blame for Haiti cholera' - US House members
20 July 2012 : Haiti's cholera epidemic has claimed the lives of more than 7,000 people

More than 100 Democrats from the US House of Representatives have called on the UN to take responsibility for introducing cholera to Haiti. It is the latest twist in the allegation that UN peacekeepers unwittingly introduced the disease. The United Nations' envoy to Haiti, Bill Clinton, has accepted UN soldiers may have brought cholera. But with more than 7,000 deaths so far, the UN said tackling the disease is more important than attributing blame.

Outbreak source

In a letter to the US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, the 104 members of Congress stated clearly: "Cholera was brought to Haiti due to the actions of the UN." They call on Ms Rice to pressure the UN to "confront and ultimately eliminate" the disease. The letter says the UN should help Haiti mobilise enough money to build water and sewage systems to tackle the disease. While members of Congress often weigh in on foreign policy issues like Iran or Israel, it is unusual for so many members to sign a letter about a small Caribbean state like Haiti.

I gathered strong circumstantial evidence that UN peacekeepers brought cholera to Haiti during a visit late last year:

+ The epidemic started near a Nepalese UN base
+ The UN base dumped raw sewage, which spreads the disease, near the country's main Artibonite River
+ Cholera spread down the Artibonite River and into the slums of the capital Port au Prince
+ Cholera was endemic in Nepal but had not been present in Haiti for a century

Mr Clinton has acknowledged that UN soldiers were the "proximate cause" of the cholera. But UN officials shy away from taking full blame or issuing an apology. They say tackling the disease is more important than apportioning blame. They may also be reticent because Haitian and US lawyers are trying to sue the UN for financial compensation for the victims of cholera.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18928405

The OP tried to use the outbreak and the rioting and blaming of the UN as proof that black people cannot govern themselves. That it turns out that foreigners did introduce the epidemic shows, instead, that foreigners with attitudes are not capable of successfully administering colonies or governing other peoples.

Originally Posted by leftysergeant

The OP tried to use the outbreak and the rioting and blaming of the UN as proof that black people cannot govern themselves. That it turns out that foreigners did introduce the epidemic shows, instead, that foreigners with attitudes are not capable of successfully administering colonies or governing other peoples.

So Nepalese soldiers accidentally introduced cholera into Haiti. At least they were trying to help. It's a really sick and illogical kind of person that extrapolates from there to "foreigners are not capable". Why were the Haitians drinking out of open sewers in the first place?

Originally Posted by mikemikev

So Nepalese soldiers accidentally introduced cholera into Haiti. At least they were trying to help. It's a really sick and illogical kind of person that extrapolates from there to "foreigners are not capable".

They screwed up. Live with it.

Why were the Haitians drinking out of open sewers in the first place?

Show me a source that states that they were.

UN likely caused Haiti cholera epidemic...

Haiti cholera epidemic 'most likely' started at UN camp - top scientist
22 October 2012 - New evidence has emerged about the alleged role of United Nations troops in causing a cholera epidemic in the Caribbean nation of Haiti.

A top US cholera specialist, Dr Daniele Lantagne, said after studying new scientific data that it is now "most likely" the source of the outbreak was a camp for recently-arrived UN soldiers from Nepal - a country where cholera is widespread. Dr Lantagne was employed by the UN itself in 2011 as one of the world's pre-eminent experts on the disease. The new evidence could have serious implications for the UN, which is facing an unprecedented legal and moral challenge in Haiti - as well as a multi-billion dollar compensation claim from victims' families.

More than 7,500 people have died from the cholera epidemic in Haiti since it started in late 2010. Hundreds of new cases are still being registered every week. t is by far the largest cholera outbreak in the world in recent years - with more cases than on the whole of the African continent.

Prior to this outbreak, and despite Haiti's many other problems - including a devastating earthquake in January 2010 - the country had not recorded a single case of cholera for over a century. Cholera is spread through infected faeces and once it enters the water supply it is difficult to stop - especially in a country like Haiti which has almost no effective sewage disposal systems. After studying molecular data known as full genome sequencing on the strain of cholera found in Haiti - and that prevalent in Nepal in 2010 - Dr Lantagne said: "We now know that the strain of cholera in Haiti is an exact match for the strain of cholera in Nepal."

Mountain of claims