U.S. legislators appeal to U.N. to take greater role in addressing Haiti's cholera outbreak

"U.S. legislators are appealing to the United Nations to take a greater role in addressing Haiti's cholera outbreak, now in its third year and which has left thousands dead," Inter Press Service reports. "In a letter addressed to U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Susan Rice, 104 U.S. members of Congress urged Rice to help step up U.N. concern over the outbreak," the news service writes. "'It is imperative for the U.N. to now act decisively to control the cholera epidemic,' Representative John Conyers, Jr. [D-Mich.] wrote," adding, "A failure to act will not only lead to countless more deaths ... [but] will pose a permanent public health threat," IPS notes (Freedman, 7/20).