Write a paper about the outbreak of water in Haiti.

Outbreak of water in Haiti
By
GMU

Author Note: This paper was written for English 302-taught by Professor Virginia Hoy

Cholera, an Epidemic Entrenched In Haiti
Introduction
Earthquakesand Tsunamisbasicallygo hand-in-hand. Recently, an earthquake of a magnitude of over 7.0 on the Richter scale caused a huge tsunami that devastated cities in several countries throughout the Pacific region. While the number of deaths and missing persons was alarmingly high, the afflicted counties in Haiti to an extent managed to contain the diffusion of deadly diseases.The U.S. Agency for International Development estimated that there were over ninety thousand fatalities while approximately 600,000earthquake victims were uprooted from their homes and relocated to makeshift camps scattered around the Haitian capital, Port- au-Prince (Charles, 2011). Prior to the devastating tsunami, there was a dearth of documentary evidence about any cholera outbreaks in Haiti(Almazar, 2013).The cholera epidemic began, extended, and emerged as the most devastating force peripheral to the earthquake zone. Public health experts have proffered a diverse array of possible etiologies that produced the epidemic in Haiti and claimed 1000 of lives (CDC, 2010).Only a handful of public health expertsplaced blame on the peacekeeping forces the United Nations sent to Haiti for humanitarian assistance in the rehabilitation process (Aljezeera, 2015). To this day, the United Nations has either accepted or declined to address whether UN peacekeepers were guilty of bringing the deadly strain of cholera to Haiti. Instead, the U.N says that the objective and primary task was to eradicate the potentially fatal cholera strain completely. Despite the fact that the United Nations received resistance from the charge that the global organization was responsible for causing an outbreak that claimed the lives of over eight thousand people while making an additional 700,000 people sick by dumping waste into the main river in Haiti at the end of 2010, it appears that premature was given merely to avoid an attack and litigation proceedings rather than addressing the core issue of blame since many of the UN peacekeepers came Nepal, which was a country where cholera and similar diseases are endemic.
The history of cholera underscores the connection between disease and poverty, as at-risk, impoverished, and the most vulnerable sector in society is most likely to suffer. Haiti has struggled to provide its residents with clean water since it procured its independence from France at the outset of the nineteenth century. Cholera spreads quickly through bacteria germinating from fecal matter, thereby contaminating water that Hatians rely on for drinking. Poor sanitation further increases conditions that facilitate the transmission of the harmful bacteria. The outbreak of cholera in Haiti in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake was categorized by many experts as the worst cholera epidemic across the globe. As a Third World country ravaged by profound damage, poverty, and corruption, Haiti also lacks adequate sanitation and potable latrines and water. Medical experts around the globe have reached a consensus that there exists scientifically-backed measures to combat cholera from spreading and treating those afflicted by it.
While it was a premature and unfounded to place only blame on the parties expressed by the experts, this paper nonetheless examines extant literature from various disciplines that address and tackle this issue. Moreover, it focuses on a vast array of theories that have been used to provide answers for difficult questions regarding this controversial topic. Indeed, humans have historically not always been the only agent of contamination. Rather, understanding history through an environmentalclearly reveals that non-human agents such as mosquitoes have exercised agency across various geographical and temporal contexts.

Assessment
Cholera is a malady that causes the afflicted to suffer from watery diarrheal disease that germinates from a bacterial infection called Vibrio cholera and has an unusually high fatality rate if left untreated. Archibold & Sengupta (2014) consider various perspectives and interpretations of the spread of cholera in Haiti and critique the indecision of the United Nations, a global governing body that refused to address the role of its peacekeepers in spreading a deadly strain of cholera. The United Nations repelled such charges by underscoring that rather than accusing others for causing the epidemic, focus should center on more practical matters: eradicating cholera from Haiti forever. Ever since the epidemic has already impoverished and decimated island nation, there had before been an ongoing debate on what actually caused the epidemic in Haiti. The nation never had a history of a cholera epidemic, and what happened in 2010 appeared to be different and Haitians did not conceive of as a natural disaster.The United Nations proved unable raise a substantial amount of the thirty-eight million dollars that the island nation needed to provide lifesaving supplies, including the most basicwater purification tablets. Today, clinics continue to experience shortages in oral rehydration salts to treat the devastatingdiarrhoea that cholera causes. Some treatment centers in the countryside were forced to close because humanitarian aid groups had moved away, and a large number of patients were coldafterreaching hospitals according to the records ofUnited Nations proceedings (Archibold & Sengupta, 2014). As such, Haiti could never have prevented or minimized the loss caused by the epidemic in 2010. While Archibald and Sengupta touch on significant aspects about the devastating ramifications spawned by various calamities, it is unequivocal that their opinions must be supressed with a grain of salt as a result of his background as a representative of the United Nations, which was immersed in controversy at that time. As a result, the authors portrayed the United Nations in a positive light because of their biases towards the promotion of the global legislative body.
The United Nations mission, in a report to the Security Council in March 2014, said their cause unequivocally exposes the weaknesses in the capacity of health centers to provide timely and adequate medical health services to patients by cholera. Moreover, the long recovery time for cholera resulted in the closure of various treatment centers dedicated to controlling and eradicating cholera (Archibold & Sengupt, 2014).Cholera diffused so quickly as an epidemic which cased the loss of so many lives can be attributed to Haiti’s economic and social deficiencies and vulnerabilities. Haiti is a developing island nation, and it lacks the necessary infrastructure or facilities that most developed nations have. Because of such deficiencies, the death toll exponentially rose to high proportions. Hoover (2011)states that when the earthquake hit Haiti and its surrounding areas, there was an immediate outbreak of cholera in the Caribbean region. While the earthquake had a devastating effect on the lives and property, the consequences that followed left two-hundred thousand Haitians dead, and suffering. After the earthquake, the epidemic diffused vis-a-vis Haiti’s major river, and because of the contamination, the people of the region began to experience serious attacks ofdiarrhea, which is the main symptom associated withCholera. Furthermore, Hoover (2011) argues that diarrhea resulted from the toxins emitted by a particular strain of bacteria when ingested, causing severe dehydration (Hoover, 2011).
In addition, the earthquake could have destroyed most of the water system in Haiti. Since Haitian residents are dependent on the water system for their drinking water, the toxins contained in the bacterium Vibrio choleracould have contaminated the existing water system that caused diarrhea. Because diarrhea causes severe dehydration, the those suffering by it experience devastating health consequence which potentially fatal, which is why, by the middle of October in 2010, the epidemic had left over six-hundred fifty thousand dead, a figure that greatly exceeded the eight thousand claimed by the Centre of Disease Controlin their official report (Polyné, 2013).Haiti donot have the quality of facilities that developed countries have access to, and because most of the populationsof this country were ill-informed about the disease, the death toll rose by unimaginable proportions.
THE CAUSE
According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (2011), poor sanitation combined with fecal matter were the factors that catalyzed the diffusion of the cholera virus.Haiti is not a developed country, and because of its poor economic condition, health concerns remained unchecked. The country suffers from poor health-related services and economic deficiencies. Therefore, it would have been unlikely that Haiti could have withstood the calamity any better. Because of the poor sanitation, the spread of the disease became easy. The biggest problem with Haiti was that the epidemic came close to the earthquake, which hampered many rescue operations.
REVALATION
In the case of the Haitian tragedy, the country was first rocked by the massive earthquake that left thousands dead and many thousands of its residents homeless. When humanitarian assistance started pouring in from different parts of the globe, the United Nations had changed into action and ordered the deployment of its peacekeeping force to assist in restructuring of the affected areas. A peacekeeping force called from Nepal was said to have caused the spread of cholera. It was believed that a certain UN peacekeeper; subsequent to the 7.0 magnitude quake, carried the disease to Haiti when there was no confirmed report of cholera in Haiti after the earthquake (Polyné, 2013). This theory was perhaps the reason why there were fingers pointed at agencies and people. However,this person was not the agent of the spread of the disease, rather it was because of the bad sanitation and the cause of the earthquake.
In developed nations, the hosts and cholera pathogens do not get into humans with other gastrointestinal diseasesHoover (2011), substantiated this view when he said that developed, First Wold countries possessed the resources to construct better and more efficient water systems that reduced it impossible for pathogens and other carcinogens to be ingested. As such, cholera could be controlled through this methodology by eliminating the virus strain completely. The earthquake had completely destroyed the water system in Haiti, which forced Hatians to seek alternative drinking water sources. When the river water was used to wash dirty dishes and laundry, the virus, which is quite contagious, penetrated the human body through dirty dishes or unclean laundry.Also, those who were already sick did not have access to proper sanitationfacilities. As a result, many of the emigrant were forced to evacuate in public and use the river for cleaning. The contaminated river catalyzed the spread of the virus, which finally took its toll on the unsuspecting inhabitants.
Cholera is persistent and its attributes continue toconfusemedical practitioners. It is important that people understand the nature in which pathogens survive in watery environment. Polyne (2012) argues that “rivers do not have the required nutrients to enable the Vibrio choleratomasticate on” despite the fact that such an assertion was irrelevant because Vibrio cholera is immune and retains the capacity of change its genes and structure to survive in foreign conditions. During the experiment, it was found that pathogens could survive in such hostile conditions for years (Nair & Takeda, 2014). When the pathogens were observed under an electron microscope, it was found that they had contracted and looked different from the standard Vibrio cholera. It is for this reason that they are often referred to have flexibility. Righetto et al. (2013) said that when the shrunkVibrio cholerawas put back into a familiar setting,they immediately retained their original form. This went to show how tolerant they were to hostile and alien environments. The explanation provided for this phenomenon is that some pathogens change their form to a durable form in order to extend their survival. Vibrio cholera is one of the pathogens with the same capability to survive.
Conclusion
A large number of countries insiston their citizens and visitors to vaccinate against cholera. The best way though, is to; as seen in developed countries, introduce sewage treatment plants and supply clean and safe water to its public. Such healthy practices can prevent the occurrence of many intestinal diseases. This might be difficult for Haiti to implement at present because of its financial and economic condition. To counter life-threatening diseases such as cholera, the prevailing system in practice in that region is the mouthrehydration therapy which is helpful in the treatment for the epidemic. They are applied in the form of cheap packages, and have sugar and salt solutions that are used in the restoration of healthy chemicals to the gastric system. The practice is beneficial in stopping or slowing down of relentlessfatal diarrhea. The use of antibiotics would have been ideal for the Haitians, but distance was the biggest constraint.Ultimately, the cholera epidemic that occurred in Haiti in 2010 illustrates the intersectionality of mental health, infectious disease epidemic, and forces of globalization. Such a conclusion underscores how disease epidemics are intrinsically tied up in abject poverty along with other factors that play integral roles in maintaining human health. The case study of Haiti highlights how globalization risks disseminating deadly diseases across national borders or reintroducing pernicious disease.

References
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Archibold, R., & Sengupta, S. (2014). U.N. Struggles to Stem Haiti Cholera Epidemic. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 6 April 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/world/americas/un-struggles-to-stem-haiti-cholera-epidemic.html?_r=0
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