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The ongoing Haiti cholera outbreak is the worst epidemic of cholera in recent history, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.〔(Bot generated title --> )〕 After the 2010 earthquake, in little over two years, as of August 2013, it had killed at least 8,231 Haitians and hospitalized hundreds of thousands more while spreading to neighboring countries including the Dominican Republic and Cuba.〔Government of Haiti, health ministry http://www.mspp.gouv.ht/site/downloads/Rapport%20%20Web%2012.08_Avec_Courbes_Departementales.pdf〕 Since the outbreak began in October 2010, more than 6% of Haitians have had the disease. While there had been an apparent lull in cases in 2014, by August 2015, after the rainy season that year brought a spike in cases, more than 700,000 Haitians had become ill with cholera and the death toll had climbed to 9,000. The outbreak began in mid October 2010 in the rural Center Department of Haiti, about north of the capital, Port-au-Prince, killing 4672 people by March 2011〔(PAHO's Interactive Report of Cholera Outbreak )〕 and hospitalising thousands more. The outbreak occurred ten months after a powerful earthquake which devastated the nation's capital and southern towns on 12 January 2010. By the first 10 weeks of the epidemic, cholera spread to all of Haiti's 10 departments or provinces.〔 As of 12 December 2012, hospitalizations (2,300 per week) and deaths (40 per week) are roughly triple since Hurricane Sandy struck the island in what was expected to be a quiet cholera season, causing more deaths than the cyclone took in all countries combined.〔 In November 2010, the first cases of cholera were reported in the Dominican Republic and a single case in Florida, United States; in January 2011, a few cases were reported in Venezuela. The epidemic came back strongly in the 2012 rainy season, despite a localised delayed vaccine drive. In late June 2012, Cuba confirmed three deaths and 53 cases of cholera in Manzanillo, in 2013 with 51 cases in Havana. Vaccination of half the population is urged by the University of Florida to stem the epidemic. ==Background== During the 19th and 20th centuries, six major cholera pandemics had spread around the world. At the time of this outbreak, the world was experiencing the seventh, caused by a new strain of the ''Vibrio cholerae'' bacterium, El Tor. Epidemics involving this strain started in 1961 in Indonesia, and spread rapidly elsewhere in eastern Asia and then to India and Bangladesh, the USSR, Iran and Iraq. This was the first outbreak in Haiti ever recorded of El Tor. Professors at Duke University have argued that none of the previous pandemics affected Haiti either.〔CDC Journal of Emerging Infectious Diseases http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/17/11/11-0958_article.htm〕 On 21 October 2010, the Haiti National Public Health Laboratory confirmed that cases of diarrheal illness that hospitals in the Artibonite region had been receiving had been identified as cholera. Haiti has not had a cholera outbreak in recorded history, so it triggered panic and confusion in the populace, complicating relief efforts. The spread was partially blamed on the poor distribution of health supplies due to logistical problems.〔 The Pan-American Health Organization said there was also a lack of access to untainted drinking water.〔 According to the US CDC, in most instances cholera does not spread widely within countries where drinking water and sewage treatment are adequate. When water and sewage treatment is inadequate, as in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, cholera can spread rapidly. On 28 October, the head of Haiti's health department, Gabriel Thimoté, said 4,147 people were being treated. WHO's cholera chief, Claire-Lise Chaignat, said the epidemic was not contained and that she thought it had not yet "reached the peak", so Haitian authorities should be prepared for a "worst-case scenario" of cholera spreading in the capital, Port-au-Prince. On 10 November, Gabriel Thimote, Haiti's senior health official, said that the outbreak was "no longer a simple emergency, it's now a matter of national security." The outbreak of cholera became an issue for candidates to answer in the 2010 general election.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Haiti: Seismic Election )〕 There were fears that the election could be postponed. The head of MINUSTAH Edmond Mulet said that it should not be delayed as that could lead to a political vacuum with untold potential problems. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Haiti cholera outbreak」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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