Apr 2 2012
The New York Times examines the global response to Haiti's cholera epidemic, writing that while "[m]any health officials consider the cholera response 'pretty remarkable,' as John Vertefeuille, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's director in Haiti, said ... [o]thers ... believe the bar for success was set too low and more lives could have been saved." The newspaper continues, "[A]s the deaths and continuing caseload indicate, the world's response to this preventable, treatable scourge has proved inadequate."
"In the 17 months since [the outbreak began], cholera has killed more than 7,050 Haitians and sickened more than 531,000, or five percent of the population," the Times writes, adding, "The world rallied to confront cholera, ... but the mission was muddled by the United Nations' apparent role in igniting the epidemic and its unwillingness to acknowledge it." The newspaper provides a detailed account of the epidemic as well as the global response, and provides links to a video report and an infographic documenting the spread of the disease (Sontag/Paultre, 3/31).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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