Just wonderful - Cholera in Haiti

Cholera brought by the UN Peacekeeper forces. From National Public Radio:

Verdict: Haiti's Cholera Outbreak Originated In U.N. Camp
Suspicions that U.N. peacekeepers brought cholera to Haiti last fall are so incendiary in that beleagured nation that most health experts fighting the outbreak have refused to discuss it.

But an expert panel appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has concluded those suspicions are correct.

In a 32-page report released quietly on Wednesday, the four-person panel leaves no doubt that cholera spread quickly from a U.N. camp in the upper Artibonite River valley to waters used by tens of thousands of Haitians for bathing, washing and drinking.

So far, Haiti's cholera epidemic has sickened nearly 300,000 people and killed 4,500 of them.

From the report:

"The sanitation conditions at the [U.N. camp] were not sufficient to prevent contamination of the Meye Tributary System with human fecal waste," the report says. The Meye River feeds into the Artibonite, Haiti's longest river.

Sewage from the UN camp could have gotten into the river system in two ways � from a drainage canal running through the camp or from an open septic pit near the Meye River where a private contractor dumped sewage from the camp.

The experts say Hurricane Thomas last November and a flood in the region last summer played no role in spreading cholera.

The report says the U.N. should clean up its facilities around the world to make sure fecal wastes don't contaminate the environment.

Beyond that, the group says all U.N. personnel mobilized for emergencies should be vaccinated against cholera, receive prophylactic antibiotics, or both. Personnel from areas where cholera is endemic should be screened for cholera before they go to countries where it isn't a problem.

And we give these morons how much money per year? They didn't screen or vaccinate their aid workers before sending them into a compromised area? They were unable to keep their sewage from contaminating the major river system from which most citizens get their drinking water? The US contributes a 22% share of the UN operating budget ($597 Million in 2010). Saudi Arabia only contributes 0.713%. (here) In addition, there is the State Department�s Contributions to International Peacekeeping Activities (CIPA) which accounts for $2.125 Billion in 2010 (here). That is a lot of our tax dollars for such a poor performance...