Deadly River: Cholera and Cover-Up in Post-Earthquake Haiti

FEATURING RALPH R. FRERICHS – A group of scientists at Yale University recently concluded that Haiti’s devastating cholera epidemic could have been prevented through the use of a modest medical kit, valued at about $2,000. The United Nations program in Haiti, which has been held responsible for triggering the deadly outbreak, could have equipped its soldiers with a simple screening test and preventative antibiotics. Now it will cost at least $2 billion to deal with the consequences.

Haiti’s cholera epidemic came within months of the devastating 2010 earthquake, impacting more than three quarters of a million people, and killing at least 9,000. How that outbreak began, how it became politicized, and what lessons can be learned from it, are told in a new book by my guest.

Find more about the book at www.deadlyriver.com.

Ralph R. Frerichs, Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology at UCLA, and author of Deadly River: Cholera and Cover-Up in Post-Earthquake Haiti.