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Update from Nathan Lindsey, MPH at the hospital:
Posted on December 8th, 2010 No commentsPost election results were released last night in Haiti. Not a good situation. Lots of rioting, fires, violence, etc. We are safe at the hospital but please continue to pray for everyone here. Many of our local staff risked their lives just to come to work today.
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Update on the general situation by on of my friends Nadjy Joseph, MD
Posted on December 4th, 2010 No commentsHaiti feared further catastrophe from Hurricane Thomas but was mostly spared as a current review shows six people dead from the tropical storm. Many more lives have been saved, but cities like Léogâne and Aux Anglais have been flooded. Roads also are cut, isolating departments across the country. Thomas leaves Haiti under several feet of water particularly in the Artibonite department where the cholera epidemic has started.
Good public information and other prevention measures have made the difference Haitian authorities say. In Port-au-Prince, this is a huge relief because many earthquake victims live in precarious camps of tents and plastic sheeting. When I talked to my parents this week, they told me that God listened to Haitian’s prayers because the country couldn’t face another big catastrophe 10 months after January 12 earthquake.
Efforts are now mobilizing to limit the cholera outbreak. Since this cholera epidemic hit the country in mid-October, the Health Ministry has recorded nearly 900 deaths and more than 10000 hospitalizations. The post-Hurricane Thomas floods are likely to increase these figures in the coming days.
According to WHO’s, Pan American Health Organization, action is essential to keep cholera from quickly spreading across the country. This week 73 cases of cholera were reported in Port-au-Prince, the capital where 1 million homeless live in overcrowded conditions where the disease can easily spread. Dan Epstein, a PAHO spokesman, has warned that there is a real risk of the epidemic crossing the border into the neighboring Dominican Republic. According to Haitilibre.com, three Dominicans have been admitted to hospitals due to cholera symptoms.
One of the cases was in Bernard Mews Hospital, where one of my physician friends encountered people with cholera symptoms who had moved from the Artibonite department, where contaminated river water spreads the disease. Last Monday, a three-year-old child who never left the neighborhood of Cité Soleil was treated for the disease. Already one person has died of cholera in this slum with 800000 inhabitants, and a hundred others were hospitalized with severe diarrhea. Hygiene conditions in Cité Soleil are catastrophic, so the disease can spread quickly there and remain persistently. The situation is now beyond control with local resources; health authorities and NGOs are talking about cholera becoming a national security issue. The water-borne disease has already spread to half of Haiti’s 10 regions. Flooding caused by Thomas Hurricane has exacerbated conditions and help the disease spread further. At the end of last week, the storm left 20 deaths with 36 injuries and 11 people missing. All state actors must be mobilized and concern is growing in Haiti but also in the international community.
Thanks to God, Hurricane Thomas left Haiti, but my country faces many other threats right now. This makes me wonder when Haiti will have a brighter future. However, Taiwan has pledged to support Haiti in reconstruction. Although this support has been slow to arrive (like that of many other donor nations), it is needed more than ever now.
Taiwan has been able to support Haiti with health services, including sending short-term medical missions to Haiti’s rural villages and helping to establish a national laboratory for HIV. I can only hope that this cholera epidemic will receive the same compassionate attention from Taiwan’s leaders and people
Nadjy Joseph, MD
School of Health Care Administration, Taipei Medical University
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