Through its media service, Jahon, the Uzbek foreign ministry appears to be denying claims that Uzbekistan is experiencing an outbreak of cholera. the ministry of health in Uzbekistan and the state epidemiological surveillance unit are also refuting reports of a cholera outbreak and are doing nothing to prevent the spread of the disease. “If we announce a cholera diagnosis, then we immediately have to organise quarantine, and nobody wants that,” said one doctor in the Tinchlik village hospital in Yangiyul district, Tashkent. Quarantine, he says, means that villages and towns where cholera has been identified have to be ‘shut down’, and clean drinking water has to be supplied, which is an extremely costly operation for the district authorities, especially in villages like Tinchlik. Hardly surprising to find cholera “We haven’t had clean water for 20 years. the old water pipes have crumbled but nobody has ever replaced them,” said Akramkhodzh Mukhiddinov, member of the Human Rights Alliance of Uzbekistan (PAU) and also a resident of Tinchlik. Mukhiddinov claims that many people who have their own transport bring drinking water from Yangiyul or Tashkent, but most people take water from waterways running through the area. “People take water from the irrigation channels, then boil it and drink it. there is no alternative when there is no clean mains water,” says Mukhiddinov. He claims that people most at risk of contracting cholera are those who take water from the Boz-Su river. “A 45-year-old man, who drank water from this river, died recently in our village,” Mukhiddinov says. the human rights campaigner believes that, given the living conditions in Tinchlik and its neighbouring settlements, it would be amazing if an outbreak of cholera did not happen here. Health ministry denies the outbreak Meanwhile, Uzbekistan’s health ministry and foreign affairs ministry are categorically denying reports of a cholera outbreak. “When you present them with concrete facts about people dying from an illness, the symptoms of which are extremely similar to those of cholera, ministry of health civil servants don’t respond, claiming that they have heard of no such instances.” one Tashkent journalist remarked. Uzbekistan’s state epidemiological service also denies the outbreak of cholera. “We are currently running a campaign to vaccinate children against measles and German measles, but have heard nothing about cholera. if there were cases, we would have made statements about this,” said one employee of the state epidemiological surveillance service in Chilanzar district, Tashkent. “The symptoms of cholera – vomiting and diarrhoea – are similar to those of other intestinal illnesses, and it is possible that people are mistaken about what is actually wrong,” an employee of the epidemiological surveillance unit speculated. When asked about cholera, the source asked us not to use his name. So where do we stand? Despite official denials, many doctors are saying confidentially that there are cases of cholera now in Uzbekistan. They do not hide the fact that people have died from an intestinal illness, the name of which doctors will not spell out to their relatives. “I am convinced my husband died of cholera after he swam in the Boz-Su river,” says Mukhabbat, a 30-year-old Tashkent resident. the outbreak of cholera would appear to be confirmed, at least, by events in Yangiyul district and in Yangiyul hospital, where, in mid-August, dozens of people arrived each day with symptoms of this disease – not only vomiting and diarrhoea but also severe dehydration. Previously, the Almazarsk district of Tashkent had experienced cholera-like illness, also linked to water from the Boz-Su river. “It is very easy to explain why information about a cholera outbreak is being hushed up, and you can see this in the text of the foreign ministry’s statement,” said one Tashkent doctor, who also asked to not to be named. “As a member of the World Health Organisation, Uzbekistan has to update the European regional office of this body round-the-clock, but if it did inform WHO about these circumstances, WHO would send out a special commission which would see for itself the terrible living conditions of those people who have contracted cholera,” he said. “Will our government allow that to happen?” an Uznews.net source asks, adding that as winter approaches, the cholera bacteria will become less active, and the cover-up may therefore outlast the outbreak. Uznews.net

Oct. 22: A man suffering from cholera symptoms lies on the floor of the hospital in Marchand Dessalines, Haiti.

A United Nations-sponsored report into the causes of a deadly cholera outbreak that ravaged Haiti in the wake of its disastrous 2010 earthquake has discovered a culprit — the U.N. itself.

The 32-page report, prepared by an independent panel of medical experts at the behest of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, clearly states that the source of the epidemic was most likely a camp for U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti, whose human waste was dumped by independent contractors into an unsecured pit that was susceptible to flooding in heavy rainfall.

That conclusion, the report notes, mirrors “a commonly held belief in Haiti” virtually from the moment the outbreak began.

But the report buries that central finding under a welter of circumstances that caused investigators to conclude that the outbreak, which is ongoing, “was not the fault of, or deliberate action of, a group or individual.”

The cholera epidemic, which is still ongoing, has killed some 4,500 Haitians through severe diarrhea and dehydration since its outbreak in October 2010. There had been no previous cholera outbreak in Haiti for nearly a century. the report confirms that the specific cholera bacteria involved in the Haitian epidemic are a variant first detected in Bangladesh in 2002, which is even more toxic than other cholera strains found in South Asia.

As the report also notes, military contingents from Bangladesh and Nepal were among members of the United Nations Stabilization Force in Haiti (known by its French-language acronym of MINUSTAH) stationed at U.N. peacekeeping camp Mirebalais, close to the initial outbreak. An additional contingent of 60 Bangladesh police officers was also stationed at Mirebalais between September and October 2010.

None of the U.N. personnel were recorded as cholera cases, but the bacteria, which is usually spread through water, can exist in small numbers in the human digestive tract until it hits a rapid-breeding environment.

According to the report, the MINUSTAH camp at Mirebalais was just such an environment. Water piping around the main toilet and showering area of the camp was “haphazard,” with “significant potential for cross-contamination through leakage from broken pipes and poor pipe connections.” Some of the pipes ran over a drainage ditch that fed into a tributary of the Artibonite River, Haiti’s largest, which subsequently became the main artery of the water-borne epidemic.

In addition, sewage from the camp, along with two other MINUSTAH facilities, was trucked by a contractor to an open and unfenced septic pit, in an area that was susceptible to flooding and overflow in wet weather that enters the same river tributary system.

Click here to view the full report

As the report notes, “there is significant human activity — including washing, bathing, drinking, and recreation,” along the tributary system, while the Artibonite River itself is “extensively used for irrigation and agricultural purposes” through a canal system.

The experts reported that by the time they made an inspection of the Mirebalais area, long after the epidemic began, “the battalion stationed at the Mirebalais MINUSTAH facility had made substantial improvements in the sanitary conditions.” But even so, “conditions were not optimal and additional work was needed” to prevent further contamination.

The expert report knocks down any notion that the “explosive” cholera outbreak came from a natural environmental source, or an indigenous Haitian mutation of the deadly bacteria. But it argues that local factors played an important role: “The introduction of this cholera strain as a result of environmental contamination with feces could not have been the source of such an outbreak without simultaneous water and sanitation and health care system deficiencies.”

The combination of factors led the experts to their no-fault conclusion. and in any case, they argue, “the source of cholera in Haiti is no longer relevant to controlling the outbreak.” in general, they propose new hygiene precautions for future U.N. missions, and a big investment in safe pipes and drinking-water facilities in Haiti.

The U.N. predicts that an additional 400,000 people in Haiti may contract cholera this year as a result of the outbreak. other estimates have run twice as high.

Meantime, at the U.N., spokesman Martin Nesirky says that Secretary General Ban will consider the report carefully. Nesirky said the U.N. chief will convene a task force to study the findings and recommendations to ensure they are dealt with promptly.

George Russell is executive editor of Fox News

Tags: stabilization force, cholera epidemic, independent contractors, medical experts, cholera outbreak <BR/>

Tags: ban ki moon, cholera bacteria, cholera cases, cholera epidemic, cholera outbreak, cholera symptoms, deliberate action, independent contractors, independent panel, initial outbreak, marchand dessalines, medical experts, members of the united nations, south asia, stabilization force

Oct. 22: a man suffering from cholera symptoms lies on the floor of the hospital in Marchand Dessalines, Haiti.

GENEVA — the United Nations asked for $164 million Friday to fight the cholera outbreak in Haiti that has already claimed 724 lives and is expected to continue spreading for up to a year.

The funds will be used by U.N. and non-governmental organizations to bring in additional doctors, medicines and water-purification equipment to treat up to 200,000 people who could show cholera symptoms ranging from mild diarrhea to severe dehydration, the global body said.

“We absolutely need this money as soon as possible,” said Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the U.N. humanitarian office.

She told reporters in Geneva that the funds need to be provided quickly “otherwise all our efforts can be outrun by the epidemic.”

At least 11,125 cases of cholera have been confirmed in five of Haiti’s 10 districts since the outbreak began last month. ten deaths and 278 cases have occurred in the capital Port-au-Prince.

The World Health Organization said Friday that the epidemic isn’t likely to end soon.

“The projections of 200,000 cases over the next six to twelve months shows the amplitude of what could be expected,” said WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl. he noted that the current fatality rate of 6.5 percent is far higher than it should be.

“No one alive in Haiti has experienced cholera before, so it’s a population which is very susceptible to the bacteria,” Hartl said. “Once it is in water systems it transmits very easily, and it transmits among people who are often asymptomatic.”

“Cholera, now that it is in Haiti, probably the bacteria will be there for a number of years to come,” he added. “It will not go away.”

The cause of the outbreak in Haiti is still unknown. the country hadn’t seen cholera cases for decades before last month.

“The specific origin of this specific outbreak is something which probably will be investigated at some point, but what is important right now is the response on the ground,” Hartl said.