Response to COHA Analysis of Cholera Outbreak in Haiti by Stanley Lucas

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Response to COHA Analysis of Cholera Outbreak
By Stanley Lucas
November 11, 2010

COHA released its analysis of the international community's efforts to prevent the spread of communicable diseases in Haiti in the wake of the earthquake (see: coha.org/the-haitian-cholera-outbr... ).

The article discusses the failure of the international community to coordinate to provide aid to the earthquake victims and their slowness to send the promised funding, but concludes that even if the process was better managed, it is unlikely that the cholera epidemic would have been prevented.

Further, it dismisses reports of the source of the outbreak as being "speculation" lacking sufficient evidence.

The efforts to determine the source of the outbreak merely distract from and undermine efforts to contain cholera.

While it is valuable to analyze how the international community could have prevented the outbreak of cholera in Haiti, this analysis completely dismisses the fact that: 1. The international community not only failed to prevent the cholera outbreak, it actually is the source of the outbreak; and 2. The Haitian government has politicized the management of the epidemic so that the November 28 elections are not affected.

They have failed to disclose the extent of the outbreak, which will put all voters at risk when they congregate to vote in less than three weeks.

On the first point, the COHA report says that there is not enough evidence to point to the United Nations' responsibility for introducing cholera into Haiti, which has not seen the disease for the past 50 years.

In fact, there is photographic evidence of the Nepalese base of MINUSTAH, the UN Mission in Haiti, dumping their sewage into a tributary of the Artibonite river, the major source of water for millions of people, and particularly for many of the makeshift tent camps (see: solutionshaiti.blogspot.com/2010/11/ch... ).

There is also video evidence of the Nepalese base frantically working to cover up the fact that their toilets were linked directly to the tributary of the Artibonite River (see:

And finally, the US CDC determined that this particular strain of cholera originated in South Asia. Notably, Kathmandu suffered a cholera outbreak four months prior to deploying their troops to Haiti.

There is no mention of any of these well-documented facts in COHA's analysis.

To be clear, the overwhelming evidence for the source of the outbreak points to MINUSTAH.

Furthermore, even if there were no plan in place to contain cholera, it should be common sense to not feed sewage into the only source of clean water for 1.68 million people.

The COHA report further dismisses the importance of determine the source of the outbreak because this speculation can distract from efforts to contain the problem.

This is ludicrous.

Finding the source of the outbreak is critical to the management of epidemics.

The United States and the international community worked together to isolate the source of the avian flu while treating those affected.

Further, the United Nations has already had a series of scandals in Haiti, which should not be covered up or ignored, it needs to be investigated and held accountable for its failings in Haiti - not shored up so they can continue to fail the country.

Furthermore, it is estimated that this epidemic will cost Haiti $3-5 billion to treat over the coming years.

Who will fund this treatment?

The Haitian people have only received 15% of the aid promised by the international community - do we really think they will come up with additional funds now to address the cholera epidemic?

Or will resources donated to rebuilding and recovery be diverted to address a health crisis?

It is critical to determine where the outbreak came from. This is not "assigning blame" -- it is "holding accountable".

On the second point, the analysis in this article completely misses the reality on the ground related to the Haitian Government's role in this mess. The article notes that the Haitian Government has taken steps to contain the epidemic.

If so, the Haitian people are certainly unaware of these steps.

The view on the ground is that the government is covering up the extent of the epidemic to avoid accountability and to avoid any discussion of postponing the upcoming November 28 elections, which are widely expected to be a sham. The Haitian Government has provided little to no leadership on this issue despite the best efforts of the Ministry of Health.

Further, the article notes that the Haitian Government took "decisive steps" to help Haitians prepare for Hurricane Tomas.

The Haitian Government certainly warned people that the hurricane was coming and told them to relocate or shore up their housing.

However, they failed to tell people where to go, provide assistance in getting to shelter, or provide any materials to shore up their housing.

The people in the tent camps are focused on basic daily survival, how in the world would they come up with a plan to leave behind their meager belongings to go somewhere else?

By no stretch of the imagination were these "decisive steps".

There were efforts on behalf of the UN to relocate a few hundred Haitians living directly in the path of the storm, but that lead to violent protests among the camp residents who did not trust the UN and did not trust that they would be able to return to the camp after the storm to collect their few possessions.

We all know that the international community has done much for the Haitian people, and that individuals were enormously generous in the wake of the earthquake.

We all know how difficult a challenge Haiti is given the complete lack of infrastructure and capacity -- and many organizations are doing phenomenal things with few resources.

However, this report seeks to dismiss the responsibility of the international community and glosses over key questions.

The international community has an abysmal track record in Haiti and the Haitian Government is completely unable and unwilling to provide leadership.

Haitians have a chance to try to change this democratically, but now they face cholera contamination in going to the polls and wide acknowledgement that President Preval will rig the elections.

The Haitian people must come together to address these challenges.

Haitians in-country and in the Diaspora must band together to bring expertise and leadership to these issues.

No one is going to solve our problems for us.

Janice Marceau, November 11 2010, 10:06 AM

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