Cholera’s Scourge in Haiti (CUNY Radio)
With 1.5 million displaced people still living in substandard conditions since last January’s earthquake, Haiti has been dealt another deadly blow — cholera. The infectious disease is “the kind of disaster that people were afraid of,” says Mark Schuller, assistant professor of African American studies and anthropology at York College and a visiting professor at the State University of Haiti.
“Given the poor health and sanitation on the ground, they are totally unprepared for a cholera outbreak. There’s nothing to stop it.” Schuller, who spent six weeks in Haiti this summer and outlined conditions in a report, “Unstable Foundations: Impact of NGOs on Human Rights for Port-au-Prince’s Internally Displaced People,” says that 20 percent of the camps still have no access to clean water and 30 percent have no toilets of any kind.
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