Photo Gallery A Human Tragedy
Protesters carry stones during a protest against the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti, or MINUSTAH. Popular rumor in Haiti has it that Nepalese members of the mission -- in the country to provide aid after January's devastating earthquake -- emptied latrines into a river, upstream of the first known cholera case in the Caribbean in fifty years.
Epidemiologists do not completely dismiss the theory. But they warn that it may be impossible to know how the epidemic started. Many Haitians have lived in tent cities since the earthquake, and disease has flourished under the rain and sun. More than 1,400 Haitians have died of cholera since October.
The epidemic started in northwestern Haiti, and hospitals are overwhelmed. The Red Cross warns that if the disease rages through tent cities around the capital, Port-au-Prince, there will be "an unprecedented human tragedy." The first reported cases hit the capital in early November.
