DNA links Haiti cholera outbreak to Asian strains

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – A cholera outbreak that has killed more than 300 people in Haiti matches strains commonly found in South Asia, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.

The finding intensifies scrutiny on a U.N. base above a tributary to the Artibonite River that is home to a contingent of peacekeepers from Nepal, a South Asian country where cholera is endemic and which saw outbreaks this summer.

It is also a significant step toward answering one of the most important questions about the burgeoning epidemic: How did cholera, a disease never confirmed to have existed in Haiti, suddenly erupt in the vulnerable country’s rural center?

Speculation among Haitians has increasingly focused on the U.N. base. The outbreak began among people who live downstream from where the tributary meets the Artibonite and drank from the river.

The Associated Press found questionable sanitation conditions in an unannounced visit to the base last week and an exclusive tour of the facility given by peacekeepers Sunday. The U.N. defends its sanitation practices and has repeatedly denied it was a source of the infection.

CDC researchers identified the strain by analyzing DNA patterns that can be compared with those from other regions of the world using a method of “DNA fingerprinting” called pulsed field gel electrophoresis. The samples were taken from cholera patients, and the results were released to the press Monday after first being given to Haitian health authorities.

South Asia refers to the area around the Indian subcontinent – India, Pakistan and other countries including Nepal, Dr. Christopher Braden at the CDC said.

The outbreak is spreading across Haiti, its transmission eased by a lack of immunity among the population. A confirmed case of cholera had never been detected in Haiti before the current outbreak, said Claire-Lise Chaignat of the World Health Organization’s task force on cholera control.