On September 23, the last day of the last batch of statistics, MSPP gave a total of 7,602 cholera deaths since the outbreak began. In the new batch, 4 persons are reported dead on September 24 but the total deaths inexplicably drop by 72 to 7,530. Two more deaths are reported on the 25th and 1 on the 26th, and the new total for deaths is now 7,533.
Meanwhile, the total case number jumps from 595,884 on September 23 to 596,171 on the 24th—a rise of 287 cases. But the daily case number is 140, followed by 128 on the 25th and 90 on the 26th. Haiti's total cases are now, officially, 596,389. The true number is likely far more than 600,000.
This is not just a reflection on the lovable incompetence of the poor dear Ministry of Public Health and Population and its often unpaid staff. MSPP also has a lot of foreign support, from NGOs like MSP and Partners in Health to major organizations like the Pan American Health Organization, MINUSTAH, the nations supplying peacekeeping forces, the United States, and the UN.
Those organizations bear a lot of responsibility for the presence of cholera itself, and still more for the conduct of the campaign against it. They base anti-cholera funding largely on the numbers that MSPP provides, and they report those numbers without question, criticism, or explanation.
This is not just an issue of bureaucratic bumbling in a poor, corrupt country. The failure to provide accurate statistics and analysis of the cholera outbreak is an issue of medical ethics in the agencies purportedly helping that country.
