The cholera epidemic in Haiti has been largely eclipsed in the media by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Yet cholera has killed around 9,000 people on the impoverished Caribbean island since the devastating earthquake of 2010. The UN still classifies the situation as an emergency, and cases are on the rise this year. FRANCE 24’s Armen Georgian speaks to the UN's senior coordinator for the cholera response in Haiti, Pedro Medrano Rojas.
Pedro Medrano Rojas explains that the cholera epidemic in Haiti is propagated by a lack of safe drinking water and sanitation. "The only way to eradicate an epidemic like cholera is building infrastructure, and this takes time", he says. "So this cannot be achieved overnight".
He admits that it is “sometimes very difficult” for the international community to still consider the situation as an emergency after 2 or 3 years. However, he points out that treatment centres have closed precisely due to a lack of funding. "We need the resources to deal with those who are sick, because people are coming to the clinics and they have no medical attention”, he says.
Pedro Medrano Rojas also downplays the role of Nepalese UN peacekeepers in bringing cholera to Haiti in the first place, insisting on the role played by "a very weak health infrastructure" in spreading the disease.
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