Reemergence of cholera in Haiti

Abstract

Cholera was absent from Haiti until an inadvertent introduction by United Nations security forces in October 2010. The ensuing epidemic sickened 820,000 and caused 9,792 reported deaths1. The last cholera case in Haiti was recorded in January 2019, and in February 2022, Haiti was declared to have eliminated cholera2. In late September of 2022, a new outbreak began in Port-au-Prince and rapidly expanded to 964 suspected cases by mid-October of which 115 were confirmed by culture.3 Here, we present genomic and phenotypic analysis of the Vibrio cholerae isolated from a stool sample collected on September 30th, 2022 of an index case - a 10-year-old girl who presented with watery diarrhea and severe dehydration - to address the origins of the epidemic.