AFRICA/HAITI - A sad anniversary for Haiti

Monday, 9 January 2012

Port au Prince (Agenzia Fides) - More than 7,000 people have died of cholera in Haiti and about 520,000 have been infected by the disease: this is what was reported by the Associate Director of the Pan-American Health Organization, Jon Andrus. "It is one of the worst epidemics of cholera in modern history", he said, adding that 200 new cases have been reported every day. For Andrus the situation gets worse because of the rainy season in Haiti. The cholera epidemic started in October 2010, nine months after Haiti's worst earthquake in recent history, on 12 January 2010 (see Fides 13/01/2010). The cholera epidemic widespread in Haiti then moved to the Dominican Republic, the neighboring country, which has recorded 363 deaths and 21,000 cases of infection.
According to information gathered by Fides, the country's authorities have always suspected that cholera was introduced by the military from Nepal who arrived in Haiti as peacekeeping forces in the region, on the basis of the pathological features of the disease in the country with common forms of the disease in Asia. For this reason, the families of the victims in Haiti have asked the United Nations (UN) a fee of $ 100,000 for each dead person and $ 50,000 for each person infected. But still there is nothing definite on this subject.
Two years after the earthquake, Haiti is still at the starting point for the reconstruction. The earthquake has caused over 250,000 victims, two million homeless and an undefined number of homes destroyed, including public buildings. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 09/01/2012)


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