A study into how a disease previously unknown in Haiti eventually led to the world’s worst cholera epidemic offers valuable lessons for global health, say researchers from the US charity Partners in Health.

What is believed likely to be the first case of cholera in Haiti after the earthquake in January 2010 has been traced to a 28 year old man with severe mental health disorders who lived in a rural village in central Haiti downstream from the suspected source of the outbreak—a UN peacekeepers’ encampment.

Lead researcher Louise Ivers told the BMJ that this case is “illustrative of the curious way infectious diseases can now rapidly move around the planet and show …