Researchers find screening tests and antibiotics could have warded off illness,which has taken thousands of lives and will cost more than $2bn to eradicateThe devastating Haiti cholera epidemic that has claimed thousands of lives and will cost more than $2bn to eradicate could have been prevented whether the United Nations had used a basic health kit for a total of less than $2000, scientists have found.
A team of Yale epidemiologists and lawyers has looked at how the cholera bacterium was introduced to Haiti by United Nations peacekeepers relocated there in the aftermath of its 2010 earthquake. Yales startling finding is that simple screening tests costing $2.54 each, or combined with preventive antibiotics at less than $1 per peacekeeper,could have avoided one of the worst outbreaks of the deadly disease in contemporary history.
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Source: theguardian.com