(UNICAMP - 2011) Public Health Cholera tightens gr

Public Health

Cholera tightens grip on Haiti

by Declan Butler

As cholera rampages through Haiti, some epidemiologists are warning that the country could face more than half a million cases over the coming year. “It’s spreading like wildfire,” says Andrew Camilli, a cholera researcher at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts. As the current Haitian population has never been exposed to cholera, they lack any immunity to the disease, which makes the toll even greater. Vaccination might have helped, but it was not an option in Haiti because of the vaccine’s scarcity and the logistical difficulties in getting it to people in time