it's about an hour drive northeast of port-au-prince.s water to drink, to cook with, to bathe with. up until 2010 they said they never had a problem. more than 8,000 have died in the last three years. we went to a clinic that is still full today. it's run by oliver schultz. how bad is the problem right now? >> the problem in haiti is bad. it is the worst cholera epidemic in mod tern times. there's more here than worldwide alone this year. >> reporter: the u.n. says it has legal immunity and will not accept claims for compensation. you're a lady in a small town up against a huge organization. what makes you think you can win this? >> we're getting a lot of help, lucette paul told us, and we hope to god we can win. with her father and brother gone, the family has no bread winner and no money for the surviving children to attend school. winning this case, paul believes, could give them a future. while this lawsuit moves forward, the same string of cholera also continues to spread. it's already been found in the dominican republic and cuba a

nicole phillips is the attorney handling the case from port-au- prince. united nations wasn't here in haiti after the earthquake, would this outbreak have happened? >> no. the people thought that that water was still safe to drink, and they kept drinking it. and now, the cholera has spread so far into the river systems, that it would be impossible to eradicate. >> reporter: forensic studies have linked the spread of the disease to a flawed siewnl system at the u.n.'s base for soldiers from nepal. a u.n. test showed the culprit bacteria came from southeast asia. cholera, spread through human feces, induces severe vomiting and diarrhea and can kill if not treated quickly. this is believed to be the source of the initial outbreak. it's a section of river about an hour's drive northeast of port- au-prince. haitians here use this water to drink, to cook with, to bathe with. and up until 2010, they said they never had a problem. more than 8,000 have died in the last three years. we went to a clinic that is still full today. it's run by oliver schultz. how bad i

a few weeks later i was on a field mission in a lazy seaside town three hours from port-au-prince. two vacationing american teenagers struck up conversations with me. the best part of their trip had been the orphanage and playing with the children. the orphanage, they sat on hammocks drinking the local beer. for them going and giving out candy to kids hadn't just felt normal like handing out appellates to goats and a petting zoo. it felt noble. these boys felt they were doing good putting smiles on the faces of children and creating lasting bonds. i imagine the kids they had left behind, to interact with and form attachments to the stampede of foreigners that rolled through the orphanage every day. real aid workers hated these folks. we called them hug vacations. they are on spring break, this trip is for them, not haitians. they are the beneficiaries of this whole thing. they are here to have a store when they go home, to feel good about themselves, all you need is a good heart and you can get away with anything these days. and other friends told us a group she knew in cambodia, t

in haiti, you had hundreds of thousands of people who died in port-au-prince alone. but in terms of actual devastation, this entire area is just gone. the houses that were here are largely gone. and people have nowhere to go. there isn't electricity. there isn't food. there isn't water. it's not as if there's neighbors that they can fall back on. so it's always hard to compare one to another. certainly, for the people here, it's the worst thing that's ever happened to them and the worst thing that ever will happen to them. there are families, there are mothers having to sleep neared bodies of their dead children, having to smell their dead children, and this is day five. it's been going on now for five days that their child has been laying near them, that they have been smelling their child while they search for their other children who are still missing. and they're searching all by themselves or they're searching with the help of just a few relatives. but many of those relatives are searching for other relatives who are missing. so there's not really a concerted, o

a few weeks later i was on a field of mission and a lazy seaside town about three hours from port-au-princeto vacationing teenagers that were staying at my hotel struck conversations with me. the best part of the trip they agreed that the orphanage and playing with some of the children. the orphanage was a tourist stop for the boys who sat on hammock's drinking prestige local beer. for them, going into giving out candy to kids hadn't felt normal like handing out palettes -- ending out palettes when you are at a petting zoo. it felt noble. while the boys felt they were doing good putting smiles on the faces of children and creating lost in bonds i imagined the kids they left behind who had to interact with and form attachments to the stampedes of foreigners that rolled through the orphanage's every day. really workers hated these folks. we called them a hug vacations. they are on spring break. the trip is for them, not patients. let's be clear they are the beneficiaries of this. they are here to have a story when they go home to feel good about themselves, complained one worker. seriously al