ARTICLE - PROBLEMS - ACCESS TO MEDICINES

TOUGHEST BATTLE IN HAITI IS ACCESS TO MEDICINES
(News-Press) - By Rachel Revehl

1:10 A.M. — PORT-AU-PRINCE — In the secluded, russet-colored hills of Pestel, Haiti, about 80,000 people have been treated for years by just one doctor working out of a small hospital with little access to clean water or electricity.

That was before cholera.

Dr. Seneque Philippe estimates 2,000 people in his region of 220 villages have been infected, and about 250 have died of the bacterial, waterborne sickness since the outbreak first exploded in November.

Spread of the deadly disease has been reported throughout Haiti for months, but the difference between this area and others is its remote location.

“The people out there are so isolated, and the word about cholera has just not gotten out to them, even now,” said Lehigh Acres doctor Stephen Schroering “People think it’s dysentery, so they lay down and think, ‘I’ll be better in the morning,’ but by morning, they’re dead.”

It’s a rough, nine-hour drive from the capital of Port-au-Prince, and that’s with a sturdy vehicle.

When his Toyota pickup broke down last month, Philippe had no way to reach patients who, without care, could be dead in a matter of hours.

“Wrap them in a sheet and carry them down the mountain,” is all he can tell those who are able to reach him by phone.

Compounding the problem is that people have little access to the cholera prevention information plastered throughout the more populated cities.

Getting from home to the hospital can be a journey of 30 miles on foot, and many people are dying on the roadside before they can reach him, Philippe said.

Even if they get there, his pharmacy pantry is scant. Antibiotics and IV fluids — life-savers for those who become infected — are in short supply. The nearest hospital is 17 miles away, and most supplies have to be flown in by helicopter, an expensive venture he can scarcely afford on the $500 monthly government stipend he receives.

“It never stops, 24 hours a day,” Philippe said.

A few non-governmental organizations and individual doctors have been trying to help. Dr. Sunders Dorcely, also a native of Pestel, joined Philippe about three months ago, and a group of 17 nurses and doctors from Cuba flew in to assist for several weeks.

On Friday, antibiotics emergency-ordered by Schroering were delivered by helicopter, along with a duffle bag of over-the-counter pain relievers from the Cape Coral Kiwanis Club.

Schroering has made several trips to the region, and had plans to set up a full-scale hospital in Pestel when the 7.0-magnitude earthquake ripped through Port-au-Prince in January 2010, sidetracking his focus. Still, he said the outbreak highlights the desperate need.

Monique Judy, who lives on the nearby island of Caimittes just off the coast of Pestel, had never heard of cholera until her 11-year-old daughter, Moniqua, got sick with severe vomiting and diarrhea Wednesday. Judy learned of a clinic on the island, set up by the Cuban nurses and doctors assisting Philippe. But when she reached it, she said it was full.

So Judy borrowed a canoe and rowed to the mainland before carrying her daughter up to the hospital, arriving Thursday night. The girl is expected to survive.

“I don’t know what got her sick,” Judy said. “They say something may be in the water.”