The deadly cholera outbreak in Haiti was likely sparked by a human source from outside the region, a team of US and Haitian medical researchers confirmed in a study released Thursday.
The study published in the New England Journal of Medicine was released just days after a French epidemiologist pointed the finger directly at a Nepalese UN peacekeeping camp as the source of the outbreak.
While the researchers did not make the exact same assessment, they did say the strain of bacteria likely came from South Asia, not Latin America, and looked similar to a type of cholera found in Bangladesh this past decade.
"Our data strongly suggest that the Haitian epidemic began with the introduction into Haiti of a cholera strain from a distant geographic source by human activity," said Harvard Medical School professor Matthew Waldor.
Waldor said the team's analysis "clearly distinguishes the Haitian strains from those circulating in Latin America and the US Gulf Coast," and ruled out that the strain could have come from the local aquatic environment.
"The analysis showed a close relationship between the Haitian samples and the seventh pandemic variant strains isolated in Bangladesh in 2002 and 2008," said the study.
However the authors said further analysis was needed to identify the precise source, taking note of the deadly violence that has shaken Haiti since rumors spread of the alleged Nepalese link.
"Because the disease broke out in Haiti very close in time and place to the arrival of UN peacekeeping troops from South Asia, speculation surged that it may have been introduced by these troops," the study said.
"This possibility has spawned deadly riots in Haiti against the UN peacekeepers. But the researchers caution that determining the actual source of the Haitian cholera strain will require further epidemiological investigation."
French epidemiologist Professor Renaud Piarroux conducted a study in Haiti last month and concluded the epidemic began with an imported strain of the disease that could be traced back to the Nepalese base.
"The starting point has been very precisely localized," a source close to the matter told AFP earlier this week, pointing to the UN base at Mirebalais on the Artibonite river in central Haiti.
The Nepalese army has reacted angrily and said there was no evidence to support the allegations.
The United Nations has also repeatedly insisted there is no proof any of its troops were responsible for introducing the infection to Haiti, but many local people still blame the peacekeepers.
The New England Journal of Medicine study included researchers from Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as the Fondation pour le D????veloppement des Universit????s et de la Recherche en Haiti in Port-au-Prince.
The findings are similar to those in a recent US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report which identified the strain as Vibrio cholerae serogroup O1, serotype Ogawa, a type found in South Asia.
Cholera is caused by a bacterium that infects the intestinal tract and causes sudden onset of severe diarrhea. The accompanying dehydration can be lethal, particularly among the elderly and children.
The ancient disease has erupted numerous times since the 19th century, with the most recent seventh pandemic originating in Indonesia in 1961 and spreading to India, Bangladesh and other areas around the globe including Latin America.
Experts say three to five million people are sickened by cholera each year, and 100,000 to 120,000 people die from it worldwide.
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