Wednesday
Oct272010
Update on Cholera Outbreak in Haiti
Wednesday, October 27, 2010 at 04:49PM
We have not begun to see the real extent of the cholera outbreak in Haiti. As of today, the official numbers from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Water, Sanitation and Health Cluster (WASH) are 304 dead and 4,774 confirmed cases. Although it has been reported that the number of cases has leveled off, this is largely due to the major mobilization and concentration of resources in the initial infection zone of St. Marc and surrounding areas in Haiti’s heartland, the Artibonite Valley.
However, according to experts on the Haiti Epidemic Advisory System working group, only 25% of cases display clinically apparent illness, meaning a highly conservative estimate of infected people to date is more than 16,000. These people may shed the Cholera Vibrio – the bacteria that causes cholera – into the environmental for four to six weeks.
Although the tendency in response to subsiding numbers of deaths from the illness around St Marc is to back away from efforts to prevent the spread, this would be incredibly dangerous. Because Haiti has not had an outbreak of cholera in decades, the Haitian population is what we call “epidemiologically naïve”. While it is heartening to see the response that has been mounted in the Artibonite Valley, particularly in St Marc where so many deaths were unable to be prevented, concentrating a response there has done nothing to protect the most vulnerable Haitians.
More than 1.2 million earthquake survivors are still living in squalid conditions in more than1300 officially recognized camps in the Port-au-Prince area. These families have little or no access to drinking water and lack the buying power for chlorinators and fuel to boil water to render it safe to consume. Sanitary facilities are also scarce; in many camps where latrines were installed they have not been maintained or emptied.
Although USAID has announced plans to launch a popular education campaign to sensitize people on the simple methods to prevent the spread of cholera, including portable sound systems on trucks and educational flyers, this campaign has yet to materialize. The Dominican Republic has taken action to protect its population by putting strict security restrictions at all border entrances from Haiti, however road blocks to prevent infected and visibly sick individuals from entering Port-au-Prince and traveling farther south are still not in place.
With cases reported in Port-au-Prince camps already, it is astounding that centers have not been constructed to receive cases. The general hospital has an isolation unit with only 20 beds and lacks basic materials such as gloves, chlorination tablets, IV bags and oral rehydration therapy. UN peacekeeping soldiers continue to circulate in the city but are not bringing simple awareness raising messages to the communities who are most vulnerable.
Now is not the time to step back and congratulate what amounts to a slow response. Too little too late will result in thousands of unnecessary and preventable deaths. A week has already passed since authorities were made aware of a deadly outbreak and yet no plan has been set in motion to educate the general public and prepare for the possibility of a full blown pandemic. Now is the time to act decisively, to say we can no longer sit on the millions of dollars donated for earthquake survivors more than nine months ago. Now is the time to put that money into concrete campaigns to ameliorate the conditions that make Port-au-Prince the ideal environment for the spread of deadly diseases like cholera, and to give Haitians the better future we promised them.
However, according to experts on the Haiti Epidemic Advisory System working group, only 25% of cases display clinically apparent illness, meaning a highly conservative estimate of infected people to date is more than 16,000. These people may shed the Cholera Vibrio – the bacteria that causes cholera – into the environmental for four to six weeks.
Although the tendency in response to subsiding numbers of deaths from the illness around St Marc is to back away from efforts to prevent the spread, this would be incredibly dangerous. Because Haiti has not had an outbreak of cholera in decades, the Haitian population is what we call “epidemiologically naïve”. While it is heartening to see the response that has been mounted in the Artibonite Valley, particularly in St Marc where so many deaths were unable to be prevented, concentrating a response there has done nothing to protect the most vulnerable Haitians.
More than 1.2 million earthquake survivors are still living in squalid conditions in more than1300 officially recognized camps in the Port-au-Prince area. These families have little or no access to drinking water and lack the buying power for chlorinators and fuel to boil water to render it safe to consume. Sanitary facilities are also scarce; in many camps where latrines were installed they have not been maintained or emptied.
Although USAID has announced plans to launch a popular education campaign to sensitize people on the simple methods to prevent the spread of cholera, including portable sound systems on trucks and educational flyers, this campaign has yet to materialize. The Dominican Republic has taken action to protect its population by putting strict security restrictions at all border entrances from Haiti, however road blocks to prevent infected and visibly sick individuals from entering Port-au-Prince and traveling farther south are still not in place.
With cases reported in Port-au-Prince camps already, it is astounding that centers have not been constructed to receive cases. The general hospital has an isolation unit with only 20 beds and lacks basic materials such as gloves, chlorination tablets, IV bags and oral rehydration therapy. UN peacekeeping soldiers continue to circulate in the city but are not bringing simple awareness raising messages to the communities who are most vulnerable.
Now is not the time to step back and congratulate what amounts to a slow response. Too little too late will result in thousands of unnecessary and preventable deaths. A week has already passed since authorities were made aware of a deadly outbreak and yet no plan has been set in motion to educate the general public and prepare for the possibility of a full blown pandemic. Now is the time to act decisively, to say we can no longer sit on the millions of dollars donated for earthquake survivors more than nine months ago. Now is the time to put that money into concrete campaigns to ameliorate the conditions that make Port-au-Prince the ideal environment for the spread of deadly diseases like cholera, and to give Haitians the better future we promised them.
Reader Comments (1)
[...] Let Haiti Live to read the latest update on the Cholera outbreak in [...]