Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Haiti cholera victims demand UN compensation


The United Nations is facing claims for hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation from Haitian cholera victims.

Several studies have found that cholera was probably brought to Haiti by UN peacekeepers from Nepal.
The US-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti filed the demand on behalf of some 5,000 victims.
Haitians have little natural resistance to cholera, and the waterborne disease spread rapidly in a country whose already poor infrastructure was shattered by the January 2010 earthquake.
A massive magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti in January 2010 with an epicenter about 15 km southwest of the capital, Port-au-Prince. 
An estimated 2 million people lived within the zone of heavy to moderate structural damage. The earthquake was assessed as the worst in this region over the last 200 years and massive international assistance will be required to help the country recover.
Continue reading at the BBC


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