Contributing+Factors+-+Cholera

Haiti's earthquake killed or displaced more than one million residents. It also wiped out sewage and water treatment systems. The huge numbers of newly homeless people combined with a lack of sanitary water or proper waste disposal created conditions conducive to a cholera outbreak. The bacteria spreads mostly through fecally contaminated water--something a large number of people were suddenly exposed to.

The Haitian government did not have a health care infrastructure capable of responding to the cholera outbreak, especially as it was prioritizing more urgent emergency actions in the wake of the 2010 earthquake. Management of the outbreak is being carried out by a number of different foreign aid organizations. The lack of domestic disease control creates two problems: first, foreign organizations are ill equipped to maneuver cultural barriers to controlling the disease, and second, the lack of a central authority has lead to an uncoordinated combination of eradication efforts.

Haiti has historically had an unstable government plagued by political violence. It was also the poorest country in the Americas prior to the earthquake. The poverty, low literacy rates, and general lack of infrastructure makes any public program difficult to administer. Cholera, though an urgent problem, is not the most highly prioritized area for relief.

Citations - Cholera