But leading specialists on cholera and medicine consulted by the Associated Press challenged that position, saying it is both possible and necessary to track the source to prevent future deaths.
“That sounds like politics to me, not science,’’ Dr. Paul Farmer, a UN deputy special envoy to Haiti and a noted specialist on poverty and medicine, said of the reluctance to delve further into what caused the outbreak. “Knowing where the point source is — or source, or sources — would seem to be a good enterprise in terms of public health.’’
The suspicion that a Nepalese UN peacekeeping base on a tributary to the infected Artibonite River could have been a source of the infection fueled a protest last week during which hundreds of Haitians denounced the peacekeepers.
John Mekalanos, a cholera specialist and chairman of Harvard University’s microbiology department, said it is important to know exactly where and how the disease emerged because it is a novel, virulent strain previously unknown in the Western Hemisphere.
Interviewed by phone from Cambridge, Mekalanos said evidence suggests Nepalese soldiers carried the disease when they arrived in early October following outbreaks in their homeland.
“The organism that is causing the disease is very uncharacteristic of [Haiti and the Caribbean], and is quite characteristic of the region from where the soldiers in the base came,’’ said Mekalanos, a colleague of Farmer. “I don’t see there is any way to avoid the conclusion that an unfortunate and presumably accidental introduction of the organism occurred.’’
Cholera, which had never been documented in Haiti, has killed at least 442 people and hospitalized more than 6,742 with fever, diarrhea, and vomiting since late last month. It is now present in at least half of Haiti’s political regions.
Death occurs when patients go into shock from extreme dehydration. The epidemic has diverted resources needed for the expected strike of a hurricane this week, and could spread further if there is flooding.
