Cholera has infected thousands of people in Haiti once again just less than a year after the government announced that the disease had been eradicated. A December 13 report from the World Health Organization said that the country has 13,672 cholera cases of which 283 of them died since early October.
The last cholera epidemic in Haiti occurred in 2010. According to a correspondence published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the strain of cholera that is presently causing another disease outbreak in Haiti is connected to the 2010 strain and is most likely a descendant.
People showing symptoms of cholera receive treatment at a clinic run by Doctors Without Borders in Cité Soleil a densely populated commune of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, October 7, 2022.
Cholera Spread Through Unclean Water
WHO said that the current outbreak began on October 2, after three years of no reported cases. From October 2010 to February 2019, Haiti reported more than 820,000 cases and 9,792 deaths from cholera due to a massive nationwide outbreak. Then in February 2022, the Haitian government declared that they have eliminated the disease in the country.
Cholera spreads through contaminated food and water that has been infected with the bacteria Vibrio cholerae, Yahoo! News reported Symptoms from the infection may include diarrhea and dehydration. Although most cases are not severe and treatments are available, which puts death cases to less than 1% of those who got infected. But when left untreated, it can immediately kill people.
Rehydration is the most recommended treatment for cholera alongside ingesting a solution. Oral cholera vaccines are also available to prevent the disease and the WHO sent shipments of these vaccines to Haiti on December 12 to prevent further infection.
But the massive outbreak over 10 years ago started after a deadly earthquake in January 2010 that is estimated to have killed over 300,000 people. Then in October, UN troops from Nepal which had a cholera outbreak in Kathmandu arrived in Haiti. A few days later, the first cholera case was reported in Haiti after a man bathed and drank from a river two kilometers from where the troops set up camp.
The UN determined that the cholera outbreak began at the UN camp in which experts said the strain of bacteria in Haiti and Nepal were a "perfect match."
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Three Hypothetical Reasons for the Recurring Cholera Outbreak in Haiti
Experts are unsure how cholera reemerged in Haiti after three years, but the paper proposed three hypothetical reasons why cholera may have cropped up again, Insider reported.
The first reason is that cholera cases may have persisted since 2019, although cases may have gone undetected and it is only now that cases are surging due to a lack of clean water and proper hygiene coupled with low immunity.
Secondly, the bacteria may have remained present in reservoirs, like rivers or estuaries, where they survived until a human host came into contact with them.
Lastly, cholera may have spread to other Latin American countries when the first cholera outbreak started in 2010, and then it was reintroduced to Haiti. However, this option seems unlikely because other countries have not reported any cholera cases.
But whatever the reason may be, the authors of the paper urge health authorities to double the efforts of cholera control and prevention.
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