CHOLERA - 8 DEATHS IN 78 CASES RECORDED IN MANICHE (SOUTH) AFTER TROPICAL STORM SANDY
(Alterpresses) -
PORT-AU-PRINCE - "From October 24 (date of the first effects of Hurricane Sandy) to today [Monday, 29 October 2012], the clinic has received 78 people with cholera. Eight have already died", said Madeleine Chery, the nurse in charge of the dispensary Community Dori, communal section of Maniche (about 200 miles south of the capital Port-au-Prince) to Alterpresse.
The flooding of the Cavaillon River (another municipality in the south of the country), with the rains caused by Hurricane Sandy, have encouraged the spread of Vibrio cholerae in the communal section of Dori.
"As of October 2012, the clinic has only one nurse for the entire population of Dori. We are left to ourselves with cholera, "says Ramón Gasma, coordinator of Tet Kole Ti Peyizan ayisyen (Union of small Haitian farmers of Maniche).
Faced with the increasing cases of cholera contamination, health authorities have sent to the South from "Saturday and Sunday [27 and 28 October 2012] 5 new nurses to accompany the head of the clinic."
This administrative arrangement does not seem to reassure the interim executive agents of Maniche, Pierre Alexis Evens, expressing "dismay" faced "with the plight of the Dori Communal Section, which is cut off from the rest of the commune because of flooding of the Cavaillon River and the fury of the Ravine Blanche which traverses through the commune.
"
With a population of about 15,000 inhabitants, Dori is located 8 km from the center of Maniche. The only clinic available to the communal section, does not even have a doctor.
"The clinic is not the most appropriate place to receive cholera victims, because it is close to a church and schools. Our first desire is that a cholera treatment center (CTC) installed for the peasants, and that a doctor is assigned to the clinic", hopes Alexis.
Meanwhile, several residents of the communal section have shown a "participatory heroism" by putting themselves into the flooding waters of the Cavaillon River to retrieve on the other side, drugs, iv fluids and other materials sent by the Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP).
The MSPP vehicle, carrying medicines and equipment, could not cross the flooded Cavaillon River to bring relief to Maniche, according to testimony gathered by AlterPresse.
Showing posts with label Article - Cholera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Article - Cholera. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
ARTICLE - HYGIENE TRAINING - 10,000
TRAINING IN HYGIENE FOR 10,000 STUDENTS
(Haiti Libre) -
The Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) has implemented a program of hygiene awareness in 41 schools. This program includes information on cholera, general hygiene practices, and training for water treatment. 10,000 children in total will benefit from awareness sessions until the end of the campaigns, as part of the cholera prevention consolidation project on the banks of the Artibonite River.
Despite the information that "wants to be reassuring", of the Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) regarding the decline in cholera cases, ACTED is preparing for a new surge of cholera in Haiti because of the rainy season.
(Haiti Libre) -
The Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) has implemented a program of hygiene awareness in 41 schools. This program includes information on cholera, general hygiene practices, and training for water treatment. 10,000 children in total will benefit from awareness sessions until the end of the campaigns, as part of the cholera prevention consolidation project on the banks of the Artibonite River.
Despite the information that "wants to be reassuring", of the Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) regarding the decline in cholera cases, ACTED is preparing for a new surge of cholera in Haiti because of the rainy season.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
ARTICLE - MSF TREATS 100,000 CHOLERA PATIENTS
HAITI: MSF NEARS 100,000 CHOLERA PATIENTS TREATED
(MSF) - http://www.msf.org.uk/
As Haiti remembers those killed by the earthquake one year ago, the pace of the spread of cholera seems to have slowed in the north and in Port-au-Prince, though the outbreak remains unpredictable and MSF teams are still on high alert.
The number of new admissions is declining in most of MSF’s cholera treatment centres in Port-au-Prince and in the north and north-west of the country. Numbers are stable in the Artibonite region, where the outbreak began. In the south, MSF is dealing with a small caseload at present, but the count has slightly increased of late.
In several of MSF’s treatment centres, tents that were earlier filled with patients now stand empty. Cholera treatment takes effect rapidly and patients can usually go home within a few days; therefore, if the number of new patients declines, overall activity declines quickly as well.
There is no room for complacency, however. “The decreasing number of cases does not mean we have won the battle,” warns Kate Alberti, an MSF epidemiologist in Haiti. “Cholera can be unpredictable, especially in a country that has no history of the disease. The rains to come could be a factor, and social unrest can also have a negative impact.”
Demonstrations and sporadic violence late in 2010 coincided with a spike in cholera cases in the capital, Port-au-Prince, as people were unable to access treatment.
Over the past week, MSF has treated 5,000 patients in its 50 cholera facilities throughout the country, bringing the total number of people who have received care in MSF or MSF-supported facilities since the beginning of the outbreak to 97,000. This represents more than half of the 181,829 total cases reported by health authorities since the outbreak began. According to official figures, 3,759 people have died of cholera since Friday, 22 October.
MSF is also providing supplies for oral rehydration points in areas where the epidemic has yet to take a deep hold and in remote regions or villages un-derserved by health posts.
Throughout the cholera outbreak MSF has continued to provide essential medical services at its seven free-of-charge secondary-level care hospitals and at two government hospitals it supports in Port-au-Prince. MSF has been providing emergency obstetric services, emergency care, trauma care, and burns treatment. Outside the capital, MSF runs a hospital in Léogâne and supports another public hospital in Jacmel.
MSF has roughly 7,500 Haitian and 430 international staff maintaining these existing programmes and responding to the cholera emergency.
(MSF) - http://www.msf.org.uk/
As Haiti remembers those killed by the earthquake one year ago, the pace of the spread of cholera seems to have slowed in the north and in Port-au-Prince, though the outbreak remains unpredictable and MSF teams are still on high alert.
The number of new admissions is declining in most of MSF’s cholera treatment centres in Port-au-Prince and in the north and north-west of the country. Numbers are stable in the Artibonite region, where the outbreak began. In the south, MSF is dealing with a small caseload at present, but the count has slightly increased of late.
In several of MSF’s treatment centres, tents that were earlier filled with patients now stand empty. Cholera treatment takes effect rapidly and patients can usually go home within a few days; therefore, if the number of new patients declines, overall activity declines quickly as well.
There is no room for complacency, however. “The decreasing number of cases does not mean we have won the battle,” warns Kate Alberti, an MSF epidemiologist in Haiti. “Cholera can be unpredictable, especially in a country that has no history of the disease. The rains to come could be a factor, and social unrest can also have a negative impact.”
Demonstrations and sporadic violence late in 2010 coincided with a spike in cholera cases in the capital, Port-au-Prince, as people were unable to access treatment.
Over the past week, MSF has treated 5,000 patients in its 50 cholera facilities throughout the country, bringing the total number of people who have received care in MSF or MSF-supported facilities since the beginning of the outbreak to 97,000. This represents more than half of the 181,829 total cases reported by health authorities since the outbreak began. According to official figures, 3,759 people have died of cholera since Friday, 22 October.
MSF is also providing supplies for oral rehydration points in areas where the epidemic has yet to take a deep hold and in remote regions or villages un-derserved by health posts.
Throughout the cholera outbreak MSF has continued to provide essential medical services at its seven free-of-charge secondary-level care hospitals and at two government hospitals it supports in Port-au-Prince. MSF has been providing emergency obstetric services, emergency care, trauma care, and burns treatment. Outside the capital, MSF runs a hospital in Léogâne and supports another public hospital in Jacmel.
MSF has roughly 7,500 Haitian and 430 international staff maintaining these existing programmes and responding to the cholera emergency.
Monday, January 3, 2011
ARTICLE - CHOLERA DEATH TOLL MORE THAN 3,000
CHOLERA DEATH TOLL IN HAITI RISES TO MORE THAN 3,000
(CNN) - By Moni Basu
In the 10 weeks since an epidemic erupted in Haiti, cholera has killed more than 3,000 people -- partly because the distribution of health supplies remains a logistical nightmare.
A global medical aid agency battling the disease added Friday that another aspect of the problem has been a lack of access to untainted drinking water.
The death toll soared to 3,333 and another 140,000 people have fallen sick, Haiti's Ministry of Health reported Friday, publishing the most recent data available through December 26.
The Pan American Health Organization said an adequate supply of medicine was steadily streaming in, but distributing those supplies "remains a complex logistic operation, sometimes made worse by an unstable security situation."
The Haitian government is estimating there will be at least 400,000 cholera cases in the first 12 months of the epidemic, a period ending next October -- with half of those cases occurring by mid-January. Cholera has spread to all of Haiti's 10 departments or provinces.
Of the total cholera cases reported, 83,166 patients have been hospitalized, the Health Ministry said. The overall fatality rate was 2.2%, but is considerably higher in some rural areas.
More than 12,000 aid agencies operate in the impoverished Caribbean nation and this week, the president of the international council for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF or Doctors Without Borders) called the cholera epidemic response inadequate.
"The country is small and accessible and, following last January's earthquake, it hosts one of the largest and best-funded international aid deployments in the world," wrote Unni Karunakara in an opinion piece distributed to journalists.
Haiti, then, should be an unlikely place for the relief system's failure, but he questioned why the death toll has been so high.
Sylvain Groulx, head of Haiti's MSF mission, said many Haitians are forced to either buy bottled water or fetch it from bore wells, which can be contaminated with the cholera bacteria.
Karunakara said he visited Port-au-Prince lately and found that nearly a year after the devastating earthquake, little has been done to improve sanitation, "allowing cholera to spread at a dizzying pace."
"We began chlorinating the water ourselves. There is still just one operational waste management site in Port-au-Prince, a city of 3 million people," he said.
Even before the quake, only 12% of the Haitian population of 9.8 million received treated tap water, and only 17% had access to adequate sanitation, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On top of that, Haitians were unsure how to respond to the disease when it first surfaced in October -- there had not been a cholera outbreak in Haiti for decades.
In the first weeks, hospitalized people in Artibonite province, the heart of the outbreak, said in interviews that two-thirds of them had been drinking untreated water from rivers or canals and did not routinely use chlorine to sanitize drinking water. Nearly four out of five defecated in the open.
Symptoms of cholera, an acute, bacterial illness caused by drinking tainted water, range from mild or even nonexistent to profuse diarrhea and vomiting. It's not difficult to deal with the disease but if left untreated, death from dehydration can come within a matter of hours.
Post-election unrest in early December hampered prompt cholera response because of blocked roads, traffic disruptions, insecurity and fuel shortages. There is no way to quantify the toll exacted by the instability, Groulx said, but it had an impact.
He said, however, that MSF was seeing fewer sick people coming into cholera treatment centers. That doesn't mean the epidemic is close to being over, he said, but it's a "little ray of hope."
(CNN) - By Moni Basu
In the 10 weeks since an epidemic erupted in Haiti, cholera has killed more than 3,000 people -- partly because the distribution of health supplies remains a logistical nightmare.
A global medical aid agency battling the disease added Friday that another aspect of the problem has been a lack of access to untainted drinking water.
The death toll soared to 3,333 and another 140,000 people have fallen sick, Haiti's Ministry of Health reported Friday, publishing the most recent data available through December 26.
The Pan American Health Organization said an adequate supply of medicine was steadily streaming in, but distributing those supplies "remains a complex logistic operation, sometimes made worse by an unstable security situation."
The Haitian government is estimating there will be at least 400,000 cholera cases in the first 12 months of the epidemic, a period ending next October -- with half of those cases occurring by mid-January. Cholera has spread to all of Haiti's 10 departments or provinces.
Of the total cholera cases reported, 83,166 patients have been hospitalized, the Health Ministry said. The overall fatality rate was 2.2%, but is considerably higher in some rural areas.
More than 12,000 aid agencies operate in the impoverished Caribbean nation and this week, the president of the international council for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF or Doctors Without Borders) called the cholera epidemic response inadequate.
"The country is small and accessible and, following last January's earthquake, it hosts one of the largest and best-funded international aid deployments in the world," wrote Unni Karunakara in an opinion piece distributed to journalists.
Haiti, then, should be an unlikely place for the relief system's failure, but he questioned why the death toll has been so high.
Sylvain Groulx, head of Haiti's MSF mission, said many Haitians are forced to either buy bottled water or fetch it from bore wells, which can be contaminated with the cholera bacteria.
Karunakara said he visited Port-au-Prince lately and found that nearly a year after the devastating earthquake, little has been done to improve sanitation, "allowing cholera to spread at a dizzying pace."
"We began chlorinating the water ourselves. There is still just one operational waste management site in Port-au-Prince, a city of 3 million people," he said.
Even before the quake, only 12% of the Haitian population of 9.8 million received treated tap water, and only 17% had access to adequate sanitation, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On top of that, Haitians were unsure how to respond to the disease when it first surfaced in October -- there had not been a cholera outbreak in Haiti for decades.
In the first weeks, hospitalized people in Artibonite province, the heart of the outbreak, said in interviews that two-thirds of them had been drinking untreated water from rivers or canals and did not routinely use chlorine to sanitize drinking water. Nearly four out of five defecated in the open.
Symptoms of cholera, an acute, bacterial illness caused by drinking tainted water, range from mild or even nonexistent to profuse diarrhea and vomiting. It's not difficult to deal with the disease but if left untreated, death from dehydration can come within a matter of hours.
Post-election unrest in early December hampered prompt cholera response because of blocked roads, traffic disruptions, insecurity and fuel shortages. There is no way to quantify the toll exacted by the instability, Groulx said, but it had an impact.
He said, however, that MSF was seeing fewer sick people coming into cholera treatment centers. That doesn't mean the epidemic is close to being over, he said, but it's a "little ray of hope."
Thursday, December 30, 2010
ARTICLE - CHOLERA TOLL NEARS 3,000
HAITI CHOLERA TOLL NEARS 3,000
(The National) - AFP
PORT-AU-PRINCE - Haiti's cholera death toll has risen to 2,901 with official figures Thursday showing a record high for the daily number of fatalities since the outbreak erupted in mid-October.
The number of confirmed cholera deaths on December 19, the second most recent day on record, was just under 100, the data from the Haitian health ministry showed, far higher than previous peaks around 80 in mid-November.
As the total number of infections soared towards 150,000 in Haiti, there was also growing concern in the neighboring Dominican Republic where more than 100 cases have now been recorded including one suspected fatality.
Haiti's first cholera outbreak in more than a century has poured further misery on a poor and politically dysfunctional country trying to recover from a devastating January earthquake that killed some 250,000 people.
The epidemic spawned deadly anti-UN riots last month as some turned their anger on peacekeepers from Nepal accused of bringing the disease into the country.
Experts say the outbreak was likely sparked by a human source from outside the region and the United Nations has promised a thorough investigation into the origin of the epidemic.
Angry mobs in the deeply superstitious nation have stoned or hacked to death at least 45 people - most of them voodoo priests - accusing them of spreading the water-borne bacterial infection.
The epidemic comes against the backdrop of deep political uncertainty.
Flawed first round elections to find a successor to President Rene Preval are to be the subject of a recount monitored by international observers.
(The National) - AFP
PORT-AU-PRINCE - Haiti's cholera death toll has risen to 2,901 with official figures Thursday showing a record high for the daily number of fatalities since the outbreak erupted in mid-October.
The number of confirmed cholera deaths on December 19, the second most recent day on record, was just under 100, the data from the Haitian health ministry showed, far higher than previous peaks around 80 in mid-November.
As the total number of infections soared towards 150,000 in Haiti, there was also growing concern in the neighboring Dominican Republic where more than 100 cases have now been recorded including one suspected fatality.
Haiti's first cholera outbreak in more than a century has poured further misery on a poor and politically dysfunctional country trying to recover from a devastating January earthquake that killed some 250,000 people.
The epidemic spawned deadly anti-UN riots last month as some turned their anger on peacekeepers from Nepal accused of bringing the disease into the country.
Experts say the outbreak was likely sparked by a human source from outside the region and the United Nations has promised a thorough investigation into the origin of the epidemic.
Angry mobs in the deeply superstitious nation have stoned or hacked to death at least 45 people - most of them voodoo priests - accusing them of spreading the water-borne bacterial infection.
The epidemic comes against the backdrop of deep political uncertainty.
Flawed first round elections to find a successor to President Rene Preval are to be the subject of a recount monitored by international observers.
Monday, November 29, 2010
ARTICLE - BRITAIN FUNDS 1,000 AID WORKERS
BRITAIN FUNDS 1,000 AID WORKERS FOR HAITI CHOLERA
(AFP)
LONDON — The government said on Saturday it is paying for more than 1,000 medical staff to work in Haiti as part of an aid package worth more than 5.6 million pounds to help combat a deadly cholera outbreak there.
Two million pounds will go to the Pan American Health Organisation to fund 115 doctors, 920 nurses and 740 support staff, the Department for International Development said.
They will set up 12 major cholera treatment centres and 60 other treatment units for the disease, which has killed 1,648 people and is yet to peak.
A further 1.9 million pounds will be given to Oxfam to supply 340,000 people with clean water and toilets in northern Haiti, while one million pounds will go to Plan International to improve water supplies in the northeast.
Another 765,000 pounds will go towards efforts to monitor the spread of the disease in the region.
"Analysis from the UN and our own field team reveals that the response needs to be significantly increased if we are to save thousands from the disease," International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said in a statement.
"We must stop the disease spreading further and trained medical teams and equipment funded by the British taxpayer will bring crucial relief to the devastated country."
(AFP)
LONDON — The government said on Saturday it is paying for more than 1,000 medical staff to work in Haiti as part of an aid package worth more than 5.6 million pounds to help combat a deadly cholera outbreak there.
Two million pounds will go to the Pan American Health Organisation to fund 115 doctors, 920 nurses and 740 support staff, the Department for International Development said.
They will set up 12 major cholera treatment centres and 60 other treatment units for the disease, which has killed 1,648 people and is yet to peak.
A further 1.9 million pounds will be given to Oxfam to supply 340,000 people with clean water and toilets in northern Haiti, while one million pounds will go to Plan International to improve water supplies in the northeast.
Another 765,000 pounds will go towards efforts to monitor the spread of the disease in the region.
"Analysis from the UN and our own field team reveals that the response needs to be significantly increased if we are to save thousands from the disease," International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said in a statement.
"We must stop the disease spreading further and trained medical teams and equipment funded by the British taxpayer will bring crucial relief to the devastated country."
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
ARTICLE - EXPECT 200,000 CHOLERA CASES
EXPECT 200,000 HAITI CHOLERA CASES: EXPERT
(AFP) –
WASHINGTON — A top health expert warned on Tuesday that Haiti could face as many as 200,000 cases of cholera in the coming three months and needs urgent supplies to treat an explosion of cases of the deadly disease.
"Cholera is virtually everywhere in the country," said Jon Kim Andrus, deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization.
"We need to plan for enough supplies to treat as many as 400,000 cholera cases occurring over the next 12 months," Andrus said, adding that almost four times the number of cases already seen could surface in the next quarter.
"We need to plan for up to half of those cases occurring over the next three months because of the explosive nature of this cholera epidemic," he told reporters.
Andrus noted that the Haitian health ministry has reported 56,901 total cases of cholera treated in both hospital and as outpatients, with the diarrhea-causing disease now present in eight of Haiti's 10 departments.
The Caribbean nation ravaged by a catastrophic earthquake in January now battles a spiraling cholera epidemic that has killed 1,415 people and required 25,000 more to be hospitalized, local officials have said.
"Since the beginning of the crisis, PAHO has distributed enough supplies to treat 80,000 cases, including oral rehydration salts and intravenous fluids for more serious cases," Andrus said.
"We have more on hand, but in the near future we will need even more supplies, cholera beds, and doctors, nurses, and people to train local doctors how to treat cholera patients."
He also cited the danger of the disease spreading to other countries in the region. Already, cases have popped up in the neighboring Dominican Republic and nearby Florida.
"For many of us, this brings to mind the cholera epidemic that began in Peru in 1991 and spread to more than 16 other countries in the Americas within two years," Andrus said.
"We need more of everything: more training for staff in Haiti, more doctors, more nurses, more treatment centers, more medications, more toilets, more clean water."
(AFP) –
WASHINGTON — A top health expert warned on Tuesday that Haiti could face as many as 200,000 cases of cholera in the coming three months and needs urgent supplies to treat an explosion of cases of the deadly disease.
"Cholera is virtually everywhere in the country," said Jon Kim Andrus, deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization.
"We need to plan for enough supplies to treat as many as 400,000 cholera cases occurring over the next 12 months," Andrus said, adding that almost four times the number of cases already seen could surface in the next quarter.
"We need to plan for up to half of those cases occurring over the next three months because of the explosive nature of this cholera epidemic," he told reporters.
Andrus noted that the Haitian health ministry has reported 56,901 total cases of cholera treated in both hospital and as outpatients, with the diarrhea-causing disease now present in eight of Haiti's 10 departments.
The Caribbean nation ravaged by a catastrophic earthquake in January now battles a spiraling cholera epidemic that has killed 1,415 people and required 25,000 more to be hospitalized, local officials have said.
"Since the beginning of the crisis, PAHO has distributed enough supplies to treat 80,000 cases, including oral rehydration salts and intravenous fluids for more serious cases," Andrus said.
"We have more on hand, but in the near future we will need even more supplies, cholera beds, and doctors, nurses, and people to train local doctors how to treat cholera patients."
He also cited the danger of the disease spreading to other countries in the region. Already, cases have popped up in the neighboring Dominican Republic and nearby Florida.
"For many of us, this brings to mind the cholera epidemic that began in Peru in 1991 and spread to more than 16 other countries in the Americas within two years," Andrus said.
"We need more of everything: more training for staff in Haiti, more doctors, more nurses, more treatment centers, more medications, more toilets, more clean water."
Thursday, November 11, 2010
ARTICLE - ARTIBONITE NEEDS 1,200 BODY BAGS
THE ARTIBONITE NEEDS AT LEAST 1,200 BODY BAGS
(HaitiLibre.com)
Action Contre la Faim (ACF), which is now the only organization of emergency in the Haut Artibonite and North West indicated that given the population density, to psychosis growing up in the city, with multiple risk of contamination, size and inaccessibility of some areas of the Artibonite and Northwest, it is urgent that other actors specializing in water, sanitation and hygiene are mobilized in these areas.
The epidemic is spreading each day a little more in Gonaives, agglomeration of more than 300,000 inhabitants : for the single day of November 8, 460 people presented themselves for consultation at the hospital in Raboteau when they were 360 the day before and 104 the day before that. The epidemic is becoming out of control in these areas.
The ACF said that the focus of the international community in Port-au-Prince and the lower Artibonite, although it is important, is detrimental to other affected areas.In the Artibonite, the center of the epidemic, OCHA, MINUSTAH, the government and humanitarian partners report that with the increasing workload, more medical staff with more experience is needed urgently as well as medical supplies supplementary, including at least 1,200 body bags according to an official report.
Despite the active presence on the ground of the Cuban brigade, consisting of 118 doctors, 78 nurses and 56 others (laboratory technicians and medical staff of Haiti which was trained in Cuba) plus the major human resources of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and Partners in Health, Artibonite and Northwest, have a need for more medical partners on the ground.
Following the increase of cases in the Northern Department, UNICEF stated that a Cholera Treatment Centre (CTC) had been installed in Port-de-Paix. Specialists are being deployed to provide technical assistance. The logistics division carried six tents, 1,000 liters of Ringer's lactate, 200,000 sachets of oral rehydration salts sachets, chlorine for disinfection and 150,000 tablets for purifying water.
While the government announces daily, significant increases of inpatients, the figures of death remains until now surprisingly "moderate" [controlled? ]. However, it seems that when at least 1.200 body bags are envisaged for Artibonite, it's that the situation is undoubtedly more important than the 724 deaths (official figure - MSPP - November 9) recorded since October 21, 2010 (for the whole country ...).
The population has the right to know the truth about the epidemic. The health of the population must take precedence over politics, and the government bear the political consequences (if he has the courage, which is far from certain).
(HaitiLibre.com)
Action Contre la Faim (ACF), which is now the only organization of emergency in the Haut Artibonite and North West indicated that given the population density, to psychosis growing up in the city, with multiple risk of contamination, size and inaccessibility of some areas of the Artibonite and Northwest, it is urgent that other actors specializing in water, sanitation and hygiene are mobilized in these areas.
The epidemic is spreading each day a little more in Gonaives, agglomeration of more than 300,000 inhabitants : for the single day of November 8, 460 people presented themselves for consultation at the hospital in Raboteau when they were 360 the day before and 104 the day before that. The epidemic is becoming out of control in these areas.
The ACF said that the focus of the international community in Port-au-Prince and the lower Artibonite, although it is important, is detrimental to other affected areas.In the Artibonite, the center of the epidemic, OCHA, MINUSTAH, the government and humanitarian partners report that with the increasing workload, more medical staff with more experience is needed urgently as well as medical supplies supplementary, including at least 1,200 body bags according to an official report.
Despite the active presence on the ground of the Cuban brigade, consisting of 118 doctors, 78 nurses and 56 others (laboratory technicians and medical staff of Haiti which was trained in Cuba) plus the major human resources of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and Partners in Health, Artibonite and Northwest, have a need for more medical partners on the ground.
Following the increase of cases in the Northern Department, UNICEF stated that a Cholera Treatment Centre (CTC) had been installed in Port-de-Paix. Specialists are being deployed to provide technical assistance. The logistics division carried six tents, 1,000 liters of Ringer's lactate, 200,000 sachets of oral rehydration salts sachets, chlorine for disinfection and 150,000 tablets for purifying water.
While the government announces daily, significant increases of inpatients, the figures of death remains until now surprisingly "moderate" [controlled? ]. However, it seems that when at least 1.200 body bags are envisaged for Artibonite, it's that the situation is undoubtedly more important than the 724 deaths (official figure - MSPP - November 9) recorded since October 21, 2010 (for the whole country ...).
The population has the right to know the truth about the epidemic. The health of the population must take precedence over politics, and the government bear the political consequences (if he has the courage, which is far from certain).
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