UNLABELLED Phylodynamic analysis of genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data is a powerful tool to investigate underlying evolutionary processes of bacterial epidemics. The method was applied to investigate a collection of 65 clinical and environmental isolates of Vibrio cholerae from Haiti collected between 2010 and 2012. Characterization of isolates recovered from environmental s...

On January 12, 2010, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 on the Richter scale struck the island nation of Haiti, causing devastating losses of property, life, and limb. Orthopaedic surgeons from around the world responded to the mass casualty disaster and came together to treat many of the injured. That deadly earthquake focused the world’s attention on the Haitian health-care system. Despite...

BACKGROUND Cholera is caused by Vibrio cholerae, and is transmitted through fecal-oral contact. Infection occurs after the ingestion of the bacteria and is usually asymptomatic. In a minority of cases, it causes acute diarrhea and vomiting, which can lead to potentially fatal severe dehydration, especially in the absence of appropriate medical care. Immunity occurs after infection and typically...

HIV-1 group M subtype B was the first HIV discovered and is the predominant variant of AIDS virus in most countries outside of sub-Saharan Africa. However, the circumstances of its origin and emergence remain unresolved. Here we propose a geographic sequence and time line for the origin of subtype B and the emergence of pandemic HIV/AIDS out of Africa. Using HIV-1 gene sequences recovered from ...

Newborn cord infections commonly lead to neonatal sepsis and death, particularly in low-resource countries where newborns may receive unhygienic cord care. Topical application of chlorhexidine to the newborn's cord has been shown to prevent infection. Such benefits may be particularly important in Haiti. We explored current cord care practices by conducting a qualitative study using five focus ...

More than three years after its appearance in Haiti, cholera has already caused more than 8,500 deaths and 695,000 infections and it is feared to become endemic. However, no clear evidence of a stable environmental reservoir of pathogenic Vibrio cholerae, the infective agent of the disease, has emerged so far, suggesting the possibility that the transmission cycle of the disease is being mainta...

Editor’s note: In the Fall 2010 issue of The Permanente Journal, we published HAITI: The Kaiser Permanente Experience— Part 1, a collection of commentaries that discussed: the political relationship between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, vector-borne diseases and the role of the Malaria Emergency Technical and Operational Response (MENTOR), the Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT), disast...

Since the identification of the first cholera case in 2010, the disease has spread in epidemic form throughout the island nation of Haiti; as of 2014, about 700,000 cholera cases have been reported, with over 8,000 deaths. While case numbers have declined, the more fundamental question of whether the causative bacterium, Vibrio cholerae has established an environmental reservoir in the surface ...

CMAJ • DECEMBER 14, 2010 • 182(18) © 2010 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors 1997 Before the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake in Haiti, chronic poverty, lack of infrastructure and poor performance on key health indicators had long threatened the well-being of Haiti’s children. Though Haiti ratified the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1994, this nation has the hi...