"Cholera Will Not Go Away Until Underlying Situations that Make People Vulnerable Change"

"To describe [the cholera outbreak in Haiti] is pretty difficult," said PIH Physician Evan Lyon on a recent interview on Democracy Now! "It’s a terrifying—it’s a terrifying situation. The economic and social conditions in Haiti have left Haitians vulnerable to any manner of infectious diseases that are endemic there—typhoid, TB, malaria, HIV. But this is new."

"There hasn’t been cholera in Haiti for more than fifty years, so the population has little experience with it," Evan told host Amy Goodman. "Their immune systems have no exposure, which will help the disease spread more rapidly. And then, of course, nurses and doctors also have not seen this disease in several generations. So it’s a terrifying situation, rooted... in the lack of infrastructure, lack of sanitation and clean water, which has been very clearly—very clearly slowed down and diminished by manipulation from the outside."

Watch Evan's full interview on the player below.