U.S. Lawmakers Press for Action on Cholera in Haiti
U.S. Lawmakers Press for Action on Cholera in Haiti
By DEBORAH SONTAG
Published: July 21, 2012
In a letter sent this week, 104 members of the United States House of Representatives urged Susan E. Rice, American ambassador to the United Nations, to press the international organization to take the lead in responding to cholera in Haiti given the strong suspicions that its troops imported the disease. “As cholera was brought to Haiti due to the actions of the U.N., we believe that it is imperative for the U.N. to now act decisively to control the cholera epidemic,” said the letter from John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan, and the other representatives. Since mid-April, cholera has killed an additional 400 Haitians and sickened 50,000 more, according to Haitian government statistics. This brings the official death toll to 7,442 and the caseload to 580,947 since the first cases were detected in October 2010. The letter calls for the United Nations to push harder to find financing for water and sanitation systems to control the epidemic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/21/world/us-lawmakers-press-for-action-on-cholera-in-haiti.html?ref=world
(Short article, no more at link.)
