Deadly River: Cholera And Cover-Up In Post-Earthquake Haiti

In the repercussion of a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti near Port Au Prince in January 2010, people started dying from a organism that Haiti had never experienced before. The massive outbreak would become the world’s largest Cholera epidemic in decades. In Deadly River: Cholera and Cover-Up in Post-Earthquake Haiti by Ralph R. Frerichs, the author recounts Renaud Piarroux’s experience during the Cholera outbreak in Haiti and the political upset that ensued in the impoverished country.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, Renaud Piarroux, a French epidemiologist, was asked to investigate the outbreak of Cholera by the Haiti government. It was thought his previous dealings with Cholera would be beneficial in finding the root cause of the outbreak. Throughout the investigation, Piarroux faced hurdle after hurdle from international and government agencies who falsified reports and conspiracy making the investigation difficult.

The source of Cholera was traced back to the Nepalese troops that were part of the UN peacekeeping effort known as MINUSTAH. It was determined that this strain of cholera that devastated Haiti was the same strain linked to an outbreak in Nepal. Sewage from the camp where the Nepalese troops were stationed was dumped into a pit that would regularly overflow when it rained, therefore leaking waste into the Artibonite River. Piarroux was not convinced the runoff during rain was enough to cause the outbreak and later discovered that a truckload of waste was dumped straight into the river; enough to infect Haitians that used the river water for their daily