Since an earthquake rocked the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere in January, a number of doomsday scenarios have been predicted for Haiti:

Aftershocks were supposed to destroy the little infrastructure that was left.

Floods from the rainy season were supposed to wash away refugee communities built after the quake.

Disease brought on from unburied bodies and polluted water were supposed to leave people sick and in need of scarce medicine.

Luckily, none of those predictions have come true on a large scale until now.

More than 140 people have died in a cholera outbreak in the rural Artibonite region and the race is on for aid groups to curb the disease.

Cholera is a waterborne bacterial infection that causes diarrhea and vomiting but can lead to serious dehydration and death in several hours. It is treated by a salt-and-sugar-based medicine that adds fluid to the body's critical systems.

With the poor sanitation and slow road to recovery building Haiti has taken, I am relieved that it is only the cholera outbreak that is their worst public health problem so far.

Maybe the threat of major disease in Haiti will go unfulfilled as it thankfully has in this country.

Remember, when Ebola was going to do us in? How about SARS, bird flu, swine flu and any other number of illnesses that public health officials warned us could develop into full-blown epidemics?

Credit should go to health officials for sounding the warning alarm bells early, both here and in Haiti, to keep the chances of a public health catastrophe to a minimum.