Jan 4,2011 - A recent outbreak of cholera that killed more than 300 people in Haiti last month
last month has brought this deadly disease into the spotlight once again. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, the strains of cholera recently found in Haiti match strains commonly found in South Asia, where cholera is
endemic and where cholera outbreaks occurred this past summer. A United Nation base in Haiti that houses peacekeepers from South Asia may be responsible for this outbreak in Haiti, since Haiti has not seen cholera in decades. For a cholera outbreak to occur, two conditions have to be met : 1)there must be significant breaches in the water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure used by groups of people 2)permitting large-scale exposure to food or water contaminated with Vibrio Cholera organisms ; and cholera must be present in the population.