Haiti 2010

The bacterium responsible for Cholera, Vibrio Cholera 01,  is known to inhabit dormant coastal waters and lead to outbreaks when its environment is disrupted. It was hypothesized that the river banks near the Bay of Saint Marc in the Artibonite Department of Haiti had been disrupted leading to the Cholera outbreak of 2010. Most evidence pointed to the MINUSTAH, a French UN peacekeepers mission that was on tour at the time. Previous to providing relief in Haiti for the Earthquake in 2010, the soldiers were stationed in Nepal, which was experiencing a Cholera outbreak during the time the soldiers were stationed.

The soldiers were not subjected to medical screening nor asked to provide stool samples prior  to providing aid in Haiti, meaning it is not known for sure whether or not the military personnel had contracted Cholera in Nepal. Frerichs stated that a reporter had reported “poor sanitary and hygiene measures.” within the soldiers camp in Haiti. The lack of sanitary measures allowed fecal contamination of a nearby river that most of the local people used for drinking, bathing, and cooking.
 
Within months the Cholera outbreak reached across the country. In early 2010 the earthquake that hit Haiti left medical centers and support systems destroyed and  in October  when the Cholera outbreak occurred, the country was unprepared for the effects of the outbreak ultimately leading to the large death toll. In November 2010 Hurricane Tomas again weakened the systems in place leaving Haiti with almost no preventative or protective measures allowing the Cholera outbreak to worsen. Specifically among vulnerable or displaced populations. The conditions in which the natural disasters left Haiti caused the displacement of many people throughout Haiti. Many displaced people had to pot water due to  broken water systems making many water sources susceptible to becoming infected with Cholera. In a recent report it was found that  of May 2018, 17 of the 26 displacement camps lack improved or adequate sanitation systems. 

In October 2010  it was found that 51% of the rural population had access to improved water sources. In urban areas only 24% had access to improved sanitation and only 10% of those living in rural areas had access to sanitation systems. By 2015 Haiti wanted to increase the proportion of the population that had access to drinking water to  74% and 63% for sanitation. In 2016 great effort went into restoring the water and sanitation systems by groups such as WHO, CDC and DINEPA. 

A Haitian paper states that water access in 2017 ranged from 0 to 74% across a wide range of land in Haiti. The paper also calls for a DINEPA program guarantee  by 2030 with 100% basic access to drinking water , 80% access to improved basic sanitation and 20% to individual sanitation for all Haitians. Since the outbreak the Hiatian government has set up clinics for Cholera treatment, provided pipe delivered and sanitized water to a higher proportion of the population.