Cholera is not hard to treat and easier to control but with Haiti's damaged and corrupt infrastruture, along with poorer sanitation - the outbreak is able to get a foothold. In medicine we have a saying: Infectious disease will get us all in the end. I realize it sounds glib - and Haiti IS the 3rd world now, but when political leaders (such as they have been in Haiti for so long), hoard the cash while public sanitation, schools, hospitals and other features of developed nations remain on the back burner - this is what we will have in the end. A simple to treat bacterial infection killing people in large numbers. I'm a medical provider, but I have NO desire to fly to this dangerous and infested island and be shot for my efforts by some wild-eyed unfortunate and ignorant native who does NOT get it. We need to drop rehydration and antibiotic field supplies in huge amounts. We certainly HAVE those resources within our stockpiles. Let's go! It's the right thing to do now since it cannot get much worse over there.

With the millions upon millions of dollars that has been sent to Haiti, why was this able to happen in the first place?

Yes. Now that they've identified the source, they should make every UN worker pack up and leave... That'll teach those dirty, unhelpful UN workers!!!

It's interesting to note that the U.N., the WHO, and the CDC are all eager to establish the claim that "we may never know."

And yet, AP witnessed the obvious source. I think the only ones who will never know are the ones who already agree to never admit.

Hey wanker

what the hell is another 1000 dead....they are only hatians, right?

guess it would be too much for those in need to assume that when the UN comes in that they won't contribute even further to the initial disaster...

wonder if this happend in Chile, Spain any other country besides haiti if your attitude would be so cavlier

Less caviler? I didn't send a penny to Chile, Sumatra, nor any other place that was struck by disaster. But that doesn't make me any less caring nor humane. Did you send any form of aid? Doubt it. But that's beside the point... Why? Because I know it's hard for you, and especially you otherwise you wouldn't have called me out about it, to UNDERSTAND SARCASM!

They need the UN workers, regardless of what a small group of them accidentally did.

it isnt a matter of what they do, vs what they did tho. They brought a killer to a country they were supposed to be helping, and wont man up. THAT is the problem. standing there looking like you are 5 yrs old and saying it wasnt me with an embarassed look on your face doesnt fix crap. man up, and fix the problem. if be it they were dumping waste into the water, then action against that country needs to be taken. if it were another non UN country we'd be all up in that azz making them pay in a heartbeat, not the case here tho is it?

Yes, I am all for evolution, too...... as long as I'm not one of those being driven to extinction.

I've had some pretty harsh things to say about Haiti, but I can't look at the pictures of those suffering children and be so facetious.

Evolution haha..Seen any half man half monkey running around?You evolutionist are worst than the Christian with a Half God and Half Man..I find it strange how the Evolutionist copy the Christians..

Well, I'm not sure. Have you looked in your mirror lately?

It is not the evolution of species that caused this, it is the evolution of capitalism.

Absolutely. The common thread to so many man-made disasters is the presence of contracted companies doing the work of governments.

i agree, reasoning states, if it is the same strain, that came from 1 particular area, someone brought it over with them, or they did dump waste into the water. Either way, the Nepal's need to take care of this, or at least make a better effort than bickering. also, where is all this aide $ that was suposed to arrive, still supposedly hung up in court? Gee... odd that thhis is the 1st time i have ever heard of emergency donations held up in court like this for another country. i must say, someting stinks, and smells like all that $$ went "poof!".

sara

and because the politicians are corrupt - thousands more should die because the UN felt it was ok to just dump on the country....

Living in a zip code or country doesn't make an individual person corrupt, but you can sure as hell tell where the Politicians are crooked!

Nearly EVERYWHERE! Just more ways to catch them and hold them accountable in the US than Haiti.

Yes, the UN is bad news. I would love nothing better than the US to get out of the UN and the UN out of the US!

Birchers eh?

Seeing that there has never been a confirmed case until now, or that the bacteria wasn't present prior to this is a pretty clear indication that outside sources are the likely culprits.

You can bath downstream and get your drinking water upstream.

Sounds like you described US welfare recipients there Jimmy.

Jimmy2423494, Did you even bother to read the article? Haiti tested negative for cholera. Then Nepal had an outbreak of cholera in the summer. Then the Nepalese troups went back to Haiti in early October. Town people and the Mayor complained of an awful smell coming from the Nepalese base. AP saw the broken pipe from the latrines and pools of feces where they would drain to the river. The new(low bid) sanitation company did not drain that septic every week, it was overflowing. Then the UN quickly replaced the pipe and cleaned up the Nepalese base. Then the AP was brought back in for a tour. The cholera is of the same strain of that found in Nepal. So the UN obviously could afford to fix the pipe, could afford to clean up the mess and could make sure the new sanitation company pumped the septic weekly as they were supposed to, but didn't bother to do any of those things until the cholera was suspected to have been brought in by the UN. The Haitians have been through a devastating earthquake, hurricanes, and now Cholera and you make fun of them? You say urinating and defecating in the streets? Who was doing that? The UN? Seriously, next time read the article and comment on the avoidable Cholera tradgedy that never should have happened.

NAN- I DID read this article and I understand every bit of it. SO WHO is going to FIX IT?

I personally have no more to give, I DID ALREADY, more than once. WHO NOW???

Jimmy/KM: If I am reading your comments correctly you seem to suggest that it is OK for someone to visit your home, release a foreign disease-one that you have never ever been exposed too, acknowledge its presence, conduct no investigation into its source but blame the occupants of the home for their "way of life."

Zach- Absolutely not, and I'm sorry that you thought thats what my comment said.

I have helped other people (almost) all of my life. My country raises the taxes I pay (from a now fixed income that I vonuntarily choose to share when I can, sometimes to the detriment of my own family) when I have no choice where or how those taxes are spent. Apparently even the money that I personally CHOOSE TO DONATE TO A SPECIFIC CAUSE, such as the people in Haiti, dosen't get there either, you saw about OUR GOVERNMENT holding up the donations, right? I didn't donate to the choice of my government or to have my government choose how or when those dollars would be spent- I DONATED TO THE PEOPLE OF HAITI!!

I also didn't personally enter their country. I didn't cause or spread this current disease. Oh, and by the way, nothing was brought there by anyone (we think?)that just happened to visit for pleasure. It appears that we KNOW where and from whom the current disease came. YES-LET THEM TAKE CARE OF IT.

Depends on the country we are talking about.

your mother is a donkey human beings do not think like you, spike.

bean,

What are you talking about? The part about no intention of infection? The part about not appreciating the aid? Or, the part about how a number of US cities are going the same route as Haiti?

As Desi told Lucy, "You got some 'splainin' to do".

Spike you are an idiot. If sadi fire fighter turned around and mutilated your wife and kid with a fire axe, then would it still be bitching to be upset? This is not some flower bed you dummy, its people lives and if they knew what the source of the sickness was, they could have warned those people and saved lives. You have to be a Republican!!

Jackass!!!!!!!!!!!

Spike you are an idiot. So, if said fire man mutilated you kids and wife, with a fire axe, would it then still be bitching if you were upset? Think before you speak, if you are even capable of that. These are people, and if the UN knew about the source, they could have warned people and saved lives. maybe if I knew where you get you drinking water from, I could go take a nice and silky in it, and see how you feel. Just because they are black, doesn't mean they are nothing.

You conservative jackass!!

Wow! Such hatred! And lack of logical thought. Absolutely unbelieveable.

Wasent SPANN the ranch that harbored that guy thats in prison for life that killed a bunch of people with "helter skelter" written on the walls? OOPS, sorry, wrong spelling and wrong boob.

spike

the "lack of logical thought" started with your first post and continued with every other post you had.

I deduce you cannot read comprehensively.

@!$%# Happens.

LOL
But it ought not happen in the drinking water. That's not helpful at all.

SH!T Happens.....that explains why you are here.

What explains your presence, assh@le?

kc, he probably meant corsair.

peace

b dune,

Does your mommy know you are on the computer?

Declines? Degrades?

Education was never a high priority for the corrupt governments that have kept Haiti in the 3rd world league.

Infrastructure has always been 3rd world and really could now only "degrade" to non existent, which it almost is. They never had much by way of natural resources. Certainly none of value enough to lift the country's economy.

When the earthquake hit, they already had nothing. But they did have a small clothing assembly industry with potential.

Overpopulation isn't really it. Haiti is the 31st most densely populated country on Earth, but there are others that are far more densely populated that have sustainable economies and far, far higher standards of living. Examples are Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Israel and South Korea.

Corruption is the #1 factor in Haiti maintaining its status as the poorest country in the Americas. Millions of dollars of emergency supplies and food were held up in the ports because the port authorities wanted kickbacks for allowing it in. The UN should have arrested them, taken them to the public square and shot them dead as an example of how to deal with these scumbags. Lack of education among the populace allows the leadership to continue to feed on the blood of its people. Lack of hope allows the people to believe that nothing will ever change, no matter whether they try to change it themselves or not.

Those that are educated flee the country for better prospects elsewhere, rarely bringing their knowledge back.

Well, he did go down there with Clinton didn't he? (lol)

But the Catholics got to them first and told them God wanted them to have as many babies as their bodies could produce. And no one has told them any different.

The best thing that could happen to them would be for the pope to visit there and tell them that God grants a special Dispensation to the Haitian people for them to practice birth control for the next 100 years.

I'm not joking, people. Primitive and uneducated people are deeply religious and superstitious, and the Catholics have been telling them for over two centuries that birth control is a S.I.N.!!!!!! They believe it down to their bones, and only the pedophile pope and his church can release them from their doctrine.

In the interest of human rights, Hillary needs to ask the UN to demand that the Catholic church tell the people of Haiti that God said it was ok to not have babies every nine months.

Many do not realize the US role in Haiti was politically/militarily motivated and, despite some infrastructure improvements, left the country mainly due to The Great Depression's effect of causing US citizens to question why we were spending a fortune to occupy a country which did not want us there meddling in the first place.

Sound familiar?

Perhaps we should learn from our mistakes and leave others to theirs. Like that will ever happen.

You are so right!

What an ignorant turd you are!

The UN typically sends in "inexpensive" forces for peace keeping. Thus soldiers from countries like Nepal.

It's Bush's Fault!

smit

will you list the post # of the left wing nuts claiming the genocide conspiracy you talk about?

if not....then you know what you are.

Haiti has wonderful, talented people

Yeah, way to go 'doctor jim'. Don't let reason or logic trip up your thought process. Just say whatever you would like to be true, and it is!

Ignorance is rampant, isn't it? Thanks for knowing before posting!! It is always nice when facts get in the way of ranting.

Peace

You are right about one thing: 'Karma is a bitch'.............and now Haiti is reaping those 'rewards'

And all you bleeding heart liberals that contributed money after the earthquake and floods.................where do you think your money went? Fools...the lot of you.

I am a $5 fool for trying. Kinda figured money sent would be money stolen, but....

notsojingo- I'm a fool too, when I really didn't have it to share. That is why I give no more. My heart still aches for these people but until they stand up for their own...

Scott, yep- I'm a bloody FOOL and I knew it when I shared what little I had.

I KNOW in my heart I TRIED. Now I jest at my own expense for my own stupidity and STILL hope for the best for the unfortunates in Haiti.

You know what's ironic? The same people who make such hateful remarks on these boards (and many, many other comment sections everywhere) are the same ones who proclaim "we need to help our own people first!" Then turn around and, on stories about "our own people" needing this or that, make the same hateful remarks.

You wouldn't be surprised by how many times I've seen a commenter talk about "charity begins at home" and "we need to spend that money here first" and then in another news story, comment about how the people in need here in the U.S. are "whiny, liberal cry-babies looking for a hand out".

It saddens me, the hypocrisy with which Americans delude themselves. They love to make themselves sound like they're God's gift to planet earth, but in reality it's all about how inconvenienced they are personally.

I was reading an article about a local food bank helping a young mother of two, who was also caring for a young adult relative. And the commenters throughout made snide remarks about how she 'probably' drove a better car than they (the commenter) did because she held a keyless entry remote in her hand. Or how she put herself in the situation by having children she couldn't afford (yet they know nothing of this woman's past). And mind you, the article stated she was going to school to better herself and her situation.

And every one of these commenters would probably identify themselves as aligned with the "moral majority". God, I love this country, but some of the people I could do without.

Excellent observation, Horseman.

Well said C.Pierre!!!