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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH in Boston. The outbreak of cholera in Haiti is spreading. Cases of the lethal disease have now been reported in two new areas of the country, in the north and in the northeast. So far, more than 300 people have died, and the number of reported cases is approaching 5,000. The source of the cholera outbreak remains a mystery. There had been no cases of the waterborne disease in Haiti for more than a century. As medical experts look into the matter, United Nations officials say they’re investigating one possible source, UN peacekeepers. The BBC’s Jill McGivering has been covering the story. And Jill, among the UN peacekeepers, who is being investigated?

JILL MCGIVERING:  Well, there’s one specific mission, which is a group of Napalese soldiers and they set up camp fairly recently. They’re the people that are being investigated partly because of their location. They seem to be in an area which is very close to a tributary that lead into the main body of water which is contaminated. And plus the fact that they came just a matter of weeks ago, some people are saying if we look at the environment and think well what’s suddenly changed, what might have introduced this threat, maybe it’s the Nepalese peacekeepers. I should say that the UN is being quite cautious saying that they don’t think that this is the source, but they are very conscience that the Nepalese camp have increasingly become the focus of suspicion and of discussion, and to an extant, possible anger in the area because this is quite a volatile issue. So I think they’re trying to address it head on and say okay, we’re investigating the allegations, but there isn’t any evidence yet. They are saying look, we have sealed septic tanks, we comply with the regulations, we use a local company to collect and dispose of our waste, so as far as we’re aware, we’re not doing anything we shouldn’t.

MULLINS:  Right, but there is a real problem with cholera in South Asia and you know that because you’ve covered this for years.

MCGIVERING: There’s no doubt, it’s endemic in Nepal. Last month in Katmandu itself, the capital of the country, there was a big outbreak of cholera and that had quite a lot of attention at the time because it caused deaths. So I think people are aware of that, then they see these Nepalese peacekeepers arriving, then they see that they have cholera and they’re making that connection. Whether it’s a medical connection we still don’t know.

MULLINS: Yeah, one would assume that the UN peacekeepers before they arrive from any country or into Haiti, that they would get full medical checkups before they’re deployed.

MCGIVERING: Absolutely. And I think also, of course, there are quite close rules and regulations about how they behave basic sanitation and also, as we say, the disposal of waste. And certainly the Nepalese are saying look, we comply with those rules, but there may be some suspicion because I think there certainly seems to be quite a volatile atmosphere at the moment with a lot of people in Haiti saying this is something that we haven’t seen within our lifetime. There’s been generations since we’ve had cholera. But some doctors I’ve spoken to have said, you know, they think that this theory of it being the Nepalese isn’t terribly likely and certainly some scientists have been saying to me, well, you can have this bacteria lying dormant for decades. That’s not unusual. It’s not improbably. And then when you have an opportunity in terms of it entering the human population, then it flares up again and it could again become endemic. That’s the concern.

MULLINS: Right. And possibly the earthquake might have also given the opportunity to any kind of disease like this, bacteria like this?

MCGIVERING: Exactly. And the whole disruption, I mean you have people who are malnourished, they are vulnerable, they’re away from their normal conditions, they’re living in difficult conditions and there’s greater pressure on the drinking water that’s available. So, think you put all those things together, plus of course the difficulty with medical facilities. And then when you add on the issue of cholera it’s making things all the more difficult.

MULLINS: Alright. The BBC’s Jill McGivering on the newest cholera outbreak in Haiti. Jill, thanks.

MCGIVERING: Thank you.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

• See a picture of baby Samina
• Jill’s interview with Marco on Aug 24

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN: The BBC’s Jill McGivering has been covering the floods in Pakistan.  Last week we spoke to her after she’d visited the flood-ravaged region of Sukkur, to the north of Thul.  There, she encountered a woman by the side of the road.

JILL MCGIVERING: She has no shelter.  She was just sitting on a straw mat that someone had given her, under a tree.  And she gave birth five days before I met her, to a little girl.  That little girl, when I saw her on Day Five – well, she wasn’t taking breast milk, so basically she was getting no nourishment at all.

WERMAN: The prospects for the baby, Samina, seemed grim then.  But now she and her family have moved into a relief camp and are getting aid.  Jill McGivering has just been back to Sukkur to see how the family is faring, and sent us this report.

MCGIVERING: The last time I saw baby Samina and her mum, they were just living rough by the roadside, and I was quite dubious about Samina’s chances of survival.  I’ve come back now ten days later, and most of the people who had been there by the road have been moved into proper camps.  I understand that Samina and her family have also got a tent now inside one of these camps, and I’m walking through it trying to find them.  Tent #59.  I’ve found them.  Samina’s mother looks much more happy than she was before.  There was a big smile when she saw us coming.  And there’s Samina.  She’s still tiny.  She’s in the shade now, though, inside the tent.  Her head is dressed in some cotton wool, still in the same saucer they were using before.  But instead of lying on the hard ground, she is lying on some beautifully embroidered cushions.  And she’s wriggling, stretching and yawning and wriggling, as though she has got some life in her.

‘Ah, hello.’

Ah.  This is Samina’s father.  He wasn’t here before; he was having some medical treatment.

SAMINA’S FATHER: SPEAKING URDU

MCGIVERING: Samina’s father, [PH] Grocan, is saying that he’s been in the hospital for the last few days.  He says he’s had a very bad fever, and he puts it down to all the shock and trauma they’ve gone through – losing the house; losing their land.  And he says that their father-in-law and brother-in-law are still unaccounted for.  They don’t know where they are.

‘And how is Samina?’

SAMINA’S FATHER: SPEAKING URDU

YOUNG BOY: SPEAKING URDU

MCGIVERING: They say Samina is getting some breast milk but she’s not feeding properly.  And they’re also quite concerned – she has quite a nasty skin infection.  In order to get treatment for that, they have to pay when they go to the doctor, they say, and they just don’t have the money to do that.

‘What is the situation here in the camp?  Are things better now than they were before, on the roadside?’

SAMINA’S FATHER: SPEAKING URDU

MCGIVERING: They say they are getting basic food and water here, although nothing that’s suitable for the baby.  But they’re also saying, ‘We’re not happy here.  We want to go home.’

‘I understand you’ve tried to go home.’

SAMINA’S FATHER: SPEAKING URDU

MCGIVERING: He says that he tried to go home a few days ago to try and see what was left, but he couldn’t reach it.  He got part of the way and then the roads were waterlogged; there’s still a lot of water there.  Vehicles couldn’t get through and he had to give up and come back to the camp.

‘What do you think will be the biggest problems for you now, in the future?’

SAMINA’S FATHER: SPEAKING URDU

MCGIVERING: He’s saying that they’ll stay here for another ten days, and then they really want to move back to the area where their house was.  Their own house has been destroyed, but some of their relatives’ houses they think are still standing, so perhaps they can stay there while they start to rebuild the house.

Then I asked Samina’s mother, ‘What are your concerns about Samina, her health and her future?’

SAMINA’S MOTHER: SPEAKING URDU

MCGIVERING: She’s saying that she’s very worried about Samina.  She still has this skin rash and she’s been having a fever recently because it’s so hot here.  There’s no electricity, so there’s no electric fan.  And Samina’s mom also isn’t feeling very well.  She says the food in the camp that they’re given is very spicy and she can’t tolerate it.  She still doesn’t feel properly better after giving birth by the roadside only a couple of weeks ago.

For Samina and her family, the immediate crisis is now over.  They have shelter and food and water.  But like millions of others in this country, they only rent their land.  And the crops on which their income depends have been washed away.  Their future is still very uncertain.

WERMAN: The BBC’s Jill McGivering in Sukkur, Southern Pakistan.  You can read Jill’s online story and see a picture of baby Samina at theworld.org.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.