Friday, November 12, 2010

ARTICLE - MISSIONARY LETTER

*** the following article was written by a mission here in Haiti ***

I just received an update from my director, ***** , in Leogane.

The nine cholera patients in Leogane are not residents from the area. They are from other locations, i.e. Kafou, LaGonav, PaP. They are being treated by Doctors without Borders at their location at the Hopital St. Croix Nursing School.

One patient died last night. I was also told that Carrefour (Kafou) had over 19 Cholera patients at their hospital yesterday. Two died last night. Many more patients were arriving today.

We just lost two dogs to in our village of Bossier, two miles outside the village of Leogane. They died within eight hours of exhibiting symptoms of pain. They were vomiting and had dark blood in their stools. Not sure if it was Cholera or Parvo. Very unusual for the area, but it is a seaside fishing village. The dogs could have eaten some bad fish. Don't know for sure.

The whole community (Leogane area) is on high alert.

Bleach water is being used to disinfect everything, from their wells, to their hands, to their feet. All purchased bags of drinking water are being dipped in bleach water to disenfect the bag before consumption of water inside. Right now, community education and awareness is paramount to anything else we can do. Prevention is the key.

One last word of advice is that all dogs and pets should not be allowed to roam free.

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