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U.N. peacekeepers WERE the source of Haiti cholera outbreak that killed 2,000 people, claims French diseases expert
By James White
Last updated at 10:42 AM on 8th December 2010
Leaked report hints at cover-up and calls for improvement in sanitation for troops
U.N. peacekeepers were responsible for a cholera outbreak in Haiti that has killed more than 2,000 people, a leaked report has claimed.
There was poor sanitation and a lack of medical assistance at a U.N. base found to be the source of the deadly disease.
Epidemiologist Renaud Piarroux concluded that the cholera originated in a tributary of Haiti's Artibonite river, next to the compound outside the town of Mirebalais.
He found no instances of choldera within the unit, but he also hinted strongly at a cover-up.
Outbreak: A child suffering from cholera symptoms is taken to a local hospital near Cap Haitien, Haiti. U.N. troops have been pinpointed as the source of the disease in a report
Tthe French scientist said: 'No other hypothesis could be found to explain the outbreak of a cholera epidemic in this village... not affected by the earthquake earlier this year and located dozens of kilometres from the coast and (tent) camps.'
The report also calls for a further investigation of the outbreak, improved medical surveillance and sanitation procedures for U.N. peacekeeping troops and better support for Haitian health authorities.
However, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said there was still no conclusive evidence that its base was the source of the outbreak.
He said the organisation 'remains very receptive to any scientific debate or investigation on this.'
Killer: The cholera outbreak has already claimed more than 2,000 lives
Suspected source: Nepal's U.N. base in Mirebalais, Haiti. This file picture shows the poor sanitation situation in October
The leaking of the report - commissioned by the French government and not yet made public - coincides with violence on the streets of the troubled nation after the delayed first round of the country's presidential election was announced yesterday.
Fires were lit and supporters demonstrated their anger after candidates were eliminated in the tight poll.
Mr Piarroux could not prove there was cholera inside the base or among the soldiers, a point the UN has repeatedly used to deny its soldiers brought the disease to Haiti or that its sanitation procedures were responsible for releasing it into the environment.
'It can not be ruled out that steps have been taken to remove the suspected fecal matter and to erase the traces of an epidemic of cholera among the soldiers,' he wrote.
Grim task: Workers remove a victim of the epidemic, which has also infected more than 92,000 people
Unhealthy: A contractor dumps excrement from the UN base into stagnant pools 400m away
The report also notes that septic tanks and pipes that would have helped to confirm sanitation problems and the presence of the bacteria were no longer at the base when he visited.
Nepalese troops earlier confirmed they had replaced a leaking pipe, which contained a foul-smelling run-off that the U.N. denies was human waste.
Reporters also found a local contractor dumping human waste into overflowing pools dangerously close to a hillside that drains into the river.
Piarroux's is the first scientific report linking the base to the epidemic, though many other epidemiologists and public health experts have said for weeks that the soldiers are the most likely source of the infection.
What's That Stench?
What's That Stench?
Your collective inability to acknowledge this obvious truth makes you all look like fools.
yrs,
rubato
