Epilogue of the Origin of Cholera in Haiti, Article Review Example

The article gives the prevalence of cholera in Haiti as being similar fire prevalence in Southern California with the only exception that the cause of cholera is microbes. The duty of public health officials in controlling the spread of cholera epidemic should be centered on the origin which can give directions to measure of prevention.

John Snow, a famous epidemiologist expressed concerns of the contribution of water companies and neighboring pumps as the notable causes of cholera in his two studies namely Grand Experiment together with Broad Street Pump Outbreak. At first the findings of John Snow were despised due to his failure in isolating cholera’s causative agent that was later done by Robert Koch. Later in 1858, long after John Snow had died, people realized the importance of his studies in appreciating the epidemic outbreak, effective intervention as well as policies of prevention (Ralph, 2011).

The beginning of cholera epidemic was noted among the Nepal housekeeping troops on 14^th October 2010 in Méyè village to the south of Mirebalais city in western side of MINUSTAH (Maharjan, 2010). However, cases of cholera were documented in Nepal as early as 2008-2009. The organism responsible for cholera in Nepal perfectly matched the one identified at Haiti on the basis of the microbe molecular footprint. Some specimens of Vibrio cholera collected in Haiti were used to characterize Haiti cholera epidemic in an attempt of identifying the origin of the microbe. The origin of this microbe was associated with Nepal, a region in South Asia. A series of analysis were conducted with attempts to link the origin of cholera to other regions in the world such as Peru and Bangladesh as indicated by Chen-Shan Chin. In the cause of this analysis, the “climate causal hypothesis” was disputed by Chin as playing a role in the spread of cholera. The cholera strain evident in Haiti was attributed to local aquatic environment of Haiti and this was the most probable cause of this epidemic (Ralph, 2011).

The cholera strains in Haiti were found to be genetically identical which a clear indication was that, the outbreak of cholera in Haiti was from a single source. Secondly, a close similarity of bacteria found in Haiti was found with the bacteria from South Asia though not genetically identical and this led to the suggestion that, the origin of the cholera bacteria in Haiti was not actually the local Haiti environs. According to the article therefore, the human causal hypothesis was reinforced by UN panel while climate causal hypothesis was disputed due to the fact that the estuary waters were the sauce of cholera organism, which after isolation in Haiti, underwent dormancy until the epidemic was stimulated by an earthquake. Since the origin of V. cholera which was the causative agent of cholera in Haiti was identified as being Nepal, the mechanism of its movement to Haiti is worth consideration. This is where UN peacekeeping troops serving as the host came in. the obvious issue that appeared clear was that, the Nepalese troops who moved to Haiti from Nepal had already been cholera infected (Ralph, 2011).

The contribution of the environment mainly the river played a role in the spread of cholera from the infected host to the susceptible Haitians. The situation was further complicated by sanitary deficiencies such as unhygienic pipes that discharged sewage to rivers and the water flowing in these rivers was used by villages for domestic uses including drinking and also cooking.

Works cited

Maharjan L. Cholera outbreak looms over capital. The Himalayan Times, September 23, 2010.

Ralph R. Frerichs (2011). Epilogue of the Origin of Cholera in Haiti >>http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/origin_cholera_haiti_epilogue.html<< 23^rd Dec 2012.