Cholera Kills Over 7,000 in Post-Earthquake Haiti

It’s being called “one of the largest epidemics of the disease in modern history to affect a single country” by the U.N. World Health Organization’s Pan-American Health Organization. Over 7,000 Haitian citizens are dead after widespread sanitation problems wreaked havoc on the population following the devastating 2010 magnitude-7 earthquake that left over 300,000 dead.

Cholera is a nasty bacteria that infects the small intestine, primarily contracted by drinking dirty water or eating compromised food. It kills 100,000–130,000 people per year worldwide, and not in the nicest way either — watery diarrhea and vomiting eventually result in often lethal dehydration. As one of the few bacterium that can make it through the acidity of the human stomach, they present one of the biggest threats to third-world populations.

Louise Ivers, senior health and policy adviser for U.S.-based aid organization Partners in Health and a Haiti, told USA today that Haitians simply don’t have access to the kind of fresh water resources we have. In their country, tossing out a half-finished bottle of water would send hundreds scrambling for your trash.