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Information Gatherers (Stewards) Needed in the following areas:
- Medical Data
- Rehydration and ORS
- Water and Sanitation
- Environmental Health - Communication
- Health Education
- Logistics
- Rapid Response
- Task Server
- Shelter
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by Guyto Mathieu (Correspondent Petit-Goâve)
haitilibre.com - May 20, 2012
Following heavy rains that fell on the town of Petit-Goâve, cholera has resurfaced. The rural communities of: Pijon, Lancet, Delatte, Nicolas, Lissade, Mapou Blaise, Lompray of the 7th communal section, are most affected by the epidemic.
There are already at least five people dead and more than thirty other people have contracted cholera after consuming contaminated water. The Cholera Treatment Centre of the 7th section are overloaded with cases and need materials, medicines and doctors...
The Notre-Dame Hospital is not able to treat people with cholera. Two peasants from the countryside, transported in emergency in this Hospital, died for lack of proper care...
http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-5692-haiti-cholera-petit-goave-needs-help.html
by Ronel Odatte - alterpresse.org - May 14, 2012
Per Google Translate (from French to English):
Hinche, May 14, 2012 [AlterPresse] --- One hundred and nine new cases of cholera have been reported, including four deaths between 1 and May 10 in several remote areas of the Central Plateau, according to information provided by health officials and local to AlterPresse.
According to figures provided by Mary Maude Caesar, head of seven cholera treatment centers (CTC) in the high Central Plateau, a sexagenarian died Régalus (locality Juanaria) before he could reach a health center. A man aged 38, resident Sandy (locality Juanaria) died after reinfection with cholera. A 38 year old female, living in a communal section of Cerca-Cavajal is among the victims of the last 10 days of the epidemic in the region.
The coordinator of the Board of Directors section of Juanaria, Philip Edner, confirmed the death of another person who suffered from acute diarrhea and vomiting, when his family was about to take her to the Ctc of Abriot.
The infections were identified in recent days in Hinche, Abriot, Rincon, Labi, Rhode, Los palma, Bouhouk, and Cerca-Cavajal.
Situation more and more critical
Editorial - The New York Times - May 12, 2012
The cholera epidemic in Haiti, which began in late 2010, is bad and getting worse, for reasons that are well understood and that the aid community has done far too little to resolve. A chronic lack of access to clean water and sanitation make Haitians vulnerable to spreading sickness, especially as spring rains bring floods, as they always do. Summer hurricanes are bound to come; more misery and death will follow.
AlertNet - May 11, 2012
A shipment of 100,000 liters of IV solutions - enough to treat 17,000 severe cholera patients - arrived in Haiti amid a worsening epidemic. The delivery will ensure the only treatment center in the impoverished community of Cite Soleil is stocked with enough lifesaving rehydration fluids to help the most seriously ill patients.
AmeriCares responded to an urgent request by long-time partner, Saint Luc Foundation, after a noticeable rise in the number of cholera cases at their two treatment centers.
Patients affected by cholera receive treatment at an MSF cholera treatment center in Port-au-Prince.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, MAY 9, 2012—Cholera cases are on the rise in Haiti following the onset of the rainy season, and the country is not adequately prepared to combat the deadly disease, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today.
Tracee Laing, of Healing Art Missions, speaks with a patient during a house visit near Dumay, Haiti. / photo - Global eyes media
newarkadvocate.com - by Abbey Roy / Granville Sentinel - May 10, 2012
The first few cases of cholera began appearing at Healing Art Missions' clinic in Dumay, about 15 miles east of Port-au-Prince, about a week after Tracee Laing and Paul Hammond arrived there for a regular visit.
On April 14, six days after they'd arrived, Laing and Hammond wrote on the Healing Art Missions blog: "We found the cholera clinic bursting at the seams with 27 patients, up from 13 yesterday. As we have feared, the start of the rainy season has caused a jump in cholera cases; however, we have never seen such a crush as there was today."
Healing Art Missions - http://www.healingartmissions.org/
From: The Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
Sent By: michael.darner@mail.house.gov
Date: 5/7/2012
Dear Colleague:
Please join me in supporting efforts to address the cholera epidemic in Haiti by signing a letter to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice urging UN authorities to play a central role in addressing the crisis.
Video - Dr. Tiffany Keenan - Haiti Village Health - http://haitivillagehealth.ca/index.php/en/
royalgazette.com - by Nadia Arandjelovic - April 24, 2012
Tiffany Keenan hadn’t even reached her teen years when her piano teacher Margery MacRae saw in her the making of a humanitarian.
“She always said ‘Tiffany, I think you are going to be a missionary some day’ because I always liked [to dream of] travelling and it’s funny because I had never travelled as a kid.
“I am from a very, very small village in Canada, but I don’t know I guess she just saw that in me. She definitely gave me some drive to go forward.”
Dr Keenan, an Emergency Room physician at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, has taken part in volunteer medical missions in the Congo and Haiti.
Over the past six years, she has been instrumental in setting up a medical clinic in Jacmel, Haiti that services more than 6,000 people a year.
copenhagenconsensus.com - May 2, 2012
The world has met the Millennium Development Goal on the provision of clean drinking water five years early, but is set to miss its goal on basic sanitation by almost 1 billion people. An astonishing one-third of the world population, 2.5 billion people, lack access to basic sanitation and over one billion people defecate out in the open.
Inadequate sanitation costs lives. Diarrheal diseases are still a leading cause of death for children under five, second only to respiratory infections. The World Bank concludes that the economic impact of poor sanitation can be as high as 7% of GDP for some Asian countries and on the order of 1-2% of GDP for African countries.
The Washington Post - Associated Press - May 3, 2012
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The cholera strain in Haiti is evolving, researchers reported Thursday, a sign that it may be taking deeper root in the nation less than two years after it appeared and killed thousands of people.
The study released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that the bacterium is changing as survivors acquire at least some immunity to the original bug, which apparently was imported from Nepal.
Cholera experts also say such a development is expected and has happened in cholera epidemics around the world.
Notes from the Field - Identification of Vibrio cholerae Serogroup O1, Serotype Inaba, Biotype El Tor Strain — Haiti, March 2012
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6117a4.htm?s_cid=mm6117a4_w
Sarah
pjstar.com - by John Carroll - May 3, 2012
Yesterday morning in the pediatric clinic a mother came into my office and sat down with her baby wrapped in a blanket. She had not checked the baby in at the front desk and offered no dossier for me to look at. The dossier is the medical chart that is supposed to transmit information from one visit to another.
This was a "red flag" to me right away. And there were three Haitian pediatricians seeing patients in their offices. Why did mom pick me?
Mother quickly uncovered the baby before I could tell her the important need to "make a dossier". She showed me her six week old baby girl Sarah. The baby's skin was hanging off her and she had the shrivelled little old person look due to severe malnutrition called marasmus. And she was also eaten up with scabies.
I weighed Sarah. Five pounds.
Treatment supplies for 17,000 patients expected to arrive next week
Stamford, Conn. – May 2, 2012 – AmeriCares is rushing to deliver more than 100,000 liters of IV solutions for victims of the worsening cholera epidemic in Haiti. The emergency shipment contains enough IV fluids to treat at least 17,000 of the most seriously ill patients. Already more than 7,000 people have died since the outbreak began in October 2010 and reported cases have been on the rise again with the return of the rainy season.
Doctors Without Borders-Drouillard Hospital in LaPlaine
This Cholera Treatment Center is located two miles north of Cite Soleil - April 29, 2012 (Photo by John Carroll)
Doctors Without Borders in Haiti is directing and staffing Cholera Treatment Centers (CTC) in the Port-au-Prince area. During this rainy season, the number of cholera cases increased and sick people need a place to go very quickly for IV hydration. From what I have seen here in Port, Doctors Without Borders is doing the heavy lifting regarding cholera. (I realize there are many more organizations involved in fighting cholera, but it seems like MSF is always "bailing me out" when I have a sick patient.)
crofsblogs.typepad.com - by Crawford Kilian - April 28, 2012
Crawford Kilian translates an article via Prensa Latina (excerpts):
. . . heavy rains that have left ten dead, homes and fields destroyed, floods, and landslides.
According to the Civil Protection Directorate, various camps of persons displaced by the 2010 earthquake have suffered damage. Tens of localities are incommunicado and streets have turned into torrents.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that the situation is critical in at least 35 camps.
Lucy in Front of St. Catherine's Hospital, Cite Soleil (Photo by John Carroll)
pjstar.com - by John Carroll - April 28, 2012
As I left St. Catherine’s Hospital several days ago, there was a distraught sweaty man standing a few in front of me. He was next to an unconscious lady in a wheelbarrow.
I was not startled because this is a common way of transporting sick people in Cite Soleil.
Wheelbarrows.
I reached for her neck to see if she had a carotid pulse. It was weak...but it was there.
I asked the man what was wrong. He told me that the lady had a sudden and constant onset of diarrhea and vomiting the day before. She had been "bien prop" (very well) the day before that.
She had cholera.
Claudia at St. Catherine's Hospital Cite Soleil--April 26, 2012 (Photo by John Carroll)
pjstar.com - by John Carroll - April 27, 2012
We lost our beautiful mother two years ago today. The last two years I have lived with a deep ache in my chest.
My mom meant everything to me.
As I prepared for pediatric clinic in Cite Soleil today, I asked my mom to send me a good strong sign that she is ok.
And for some reason before I left for clinic today, I threw one sterile Vidacare intraosseous needle (IO) into my beat-up doctor bag. Vidacare Corporation generously donated many intraosseous needles for me to use to treat cholera patients. IO needles are put directly into the marrow space in the bone for people who are in shock and have collapsed veins. The marrow contains a great plexus of venous channels that will accept iv fluid very quickly.
On this trip I have never packed an IO needle because we are not seeing much cholera in Soleil, and the Haitian nurses I work with are excellent at starting IV’s in the usual fashion. But today I packed the needle...
Haiti 2012 © Mathieu Fortoul/MSF - Cholera patients recover in MSF's Martissant CTC.
doctorswithoutborders.org - April 26, 2012
With the rainy season now underway in Haiti, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has seen an increase in the number of cholera patients. Admissions to MSF's treatment centers in Port-au-Prince and Léogâne have more than tripled in less than one month.
New patients arrive daily at MSF's cholera treatment centers (CTCs). A woman named Marie was admitted to the Martissant CTC on April 16. "I had diarrhea and was vomiting a lot, then I fainted," she recounted. "A relative brought me here because it is the center closest to where I live. The doctors told me that I had cholera and was dehydrated." One hundred thirty-four other people like Marie arrived at the MSF center in Martissant between April 16 and 23 and nearly 400 more went to MSF's other CTCs in Port-au-Prince and Léogâne.
Cholera and the Human Right to Health In Post-Earthquake Haiti
2:30 - 4:30 p.m.
Rayburn House Office Building
Room 2226
45 Independence Ave, SW
Washington, DC 20515
In October of 2010, less than ten months after being hit by a devastating earthquake, Haiti experienced a cholera epidemic that quickly spread throughout the small nation. The waterborne disease has now killed at least 7,050 Haitians and sickened over 531,000 others. Meanwhile, nearly half a million earthquake victims remain without adequate housing, and Haitians continue to face one of the most challenging clean water and sanitation situations in the world. As the rainy season sets in, the country is experiencing a new spike in the number of cholera cases, according to the U.S. This Congressional Briefing examined U.S. and international efforts to address what has become the world’s worst active cholera epidemic. Panelists discussed what urgent measures are needed to contain the spread of the disease, as well as longer-term proposals for preventing cholera from becoming endemic to Haiti.
Introductory remarks by Rep. John Conyers, and closing remarks by Rep. Maxine Waters. Participants included:
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, center, tours the Eliazar Germain hospital during a visit in Port-au-prince, Haiti, Monday, April 16, 2012. Sebelius is visiting Port-au-Prince to highlight the United States’ ongoing partnership with the Haitian government to strengthen healthcare in the country, especially with respect to the prevention of infectious diseases. Photo: Ramon Espinosa / AP
Haiti launched a countrywide vaccination campaign to immunize millions of children against childhood killers.
miamiherald.com - April 20, 2012 - updated
seattlepi.com - April 16, 2012
By Jacqueline Charles - jcharles@MiamiHerald.com
More children die in Haiti before reaching their fifth birthdays than anywhere else in the Americas. And more Haitian children lack all of their shots than in most countries.
Source - http://groups.google.com/group/wash-response-haiti-2010/browse_thread/thread/54548b4fa5ac593b
Emergency Coordination Meeting AGENDA EPAH / WASH Cluster, Friday, April 20
2012, at CARE Haiti, St. Gregory, Petion Ville, Haiti
1 - Update position against cholera
2 - Updated Planning hurricane season
3 - Strategy Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (EPAH / WASH) of
emergency response to cholera outbreaks
4 · Updated Transition Clusters (OCHA)
5 - Presentation of the Cuban Brigade, Dr. Félix Cárdenas
6 - Discussion of survey results EPAH / WASH the month of March 2012
7 - Miscellaneous
Sincerely,
Julio Urruela
38812368
< http://www.dinepa.gouv.ht/wash_cluster/ >
The team of Information Management / Information Management Team
Emergency Coordination DINEPA / WASH Cluster
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A makeshift latrine hangs over the water at the edge of Cite de Dieu, a slum in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. John W. Poole / NPR
by Richard Knox - npr.org - April 13, 2012
Port-au-Prince is about the size of Chicago. But it doesn't have a sewer system. It's one of the largest cities in the world without one.
That's a big problem, but never more so than during a time of cholera.
submitted by Shelly Chvotzkin
Letter to the Editor - by Curt Welling - The New York Times - April 5, 2012
To the Editor:
“Global Failures on a Haitian Epidemic” (front page, April 1) draws long-overdue attention to the health crisis in Haiti.
Eradicating cholera is a goal that requires a billion-dollar investment in water and sanitation. Until such an infrastructure can be built and managed, we must partner with Haitians to provide medicines and supplies needed to treat and prevent this devastating disease. Fighting cholera has been the top priority of AmeriCares in Haiti from the onset of the outbreak.
While some aid organizations were slow to respond or have scaled back their cholera programs, others — including AmeriCares — reacted quickly and have expanded efforts. We had cholera medicines and hygiene supplies in stock when the first case was confirmed, and within 24 hours an emergency shipment was en route to the hospital in St. Marc.
Cholera control may still be several years away in Haiti. In the meantime, we can reduce the suffering.
CURT WELLING
President and Chief Executive
AmeriCares
Stamford, Conn., April 2, 2012
A health worker was disinfected after bringing cholera victims to a grave near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in November 2010. Damon Winter/The New York Times
submitted by Tim Siftar
The New York Times - by Tina Rosenberg - April 7, 2012
A new partnership between two organizations that battle cholera will make it possible to get supplies and knowledge to cholera-stricken areas much faster. Early next month, AmeriCares, a United States-based aid group that specializes in airlifting medical supplies into disaster zones, will finish assembling a group of pallets containing everything necessary to treat 15,000 cases of cholera.
Credit: John Poole, Richard Knox, Jane Greenhalgh
submitted by Anwar Huq
NPR - by Richard Knox
In the teeming city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, millions of people have no reliable water supply.
Many of the underground pipes that did exist were ruptured by the 2010 earthquake. Many public water kiosks are dry.
So life for most people is a constant struggle for water. And now that cholera has invaded Haiti, safe drinking water has become Haiti's most urgent public health problem.
Ted Kaplan to haiti-epidemic-advisory-system
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "Dr. Louise Ivers, Partners In Health" <redacted>
To: Ted Kaplan <redacted>
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2012 11:16 AM
Subject: Update
Dear Ted,
The vaccine has landed.
We just flew 100,000 doses of cholera vaccine from India to Port-au-Prince. The next step is taking them to a rural rice-growing community where we'll vaccinate 50,000 people against this terrible disease.
This groundbreaking project will have far-reaching effects. Not only will it save 50,000 lives; it will also blaze the trail for a new tradition of vaccination that will save hundreds of thousands more lives in the years to come.
submitted by Janine Rees
University of Colorado at Boulder - Natural Hazards Disaster Research - April 5, 2012
In Haiti, even helping is hard to do. It should be no surprise that a long-battled-for program to vaccinate Haitians against cholera has stalled due to suspicions of clandestine medical experimentation and old-fashioned political stonewalling.
The derailed program, according to NPR, has more than $400,000 worth of cholera vaccine sitting in refrigerated containers waiting for the Haitian National Ethics Committee to dispel allegations that the medicine is experimental and untested. The hold up came after a Haitian radio station called the program a “medical experiment on the Haitian people,” according to NPR.
"Groups Must Do Their Best to Avoid a Repetition of Last Year’s Tragic Increase in Preventable Deaths"
For Immediate Release: April 3, 2012
Contact: Dan Beeton, 202-239-1460
Patients with cholera await treatment in Haiti following the earthquake (UN Photo/Sophia Paris)
By the Caribbean Journal staff - caribjournal.com - April 4, 2012
Haiti has seen an increase in cholera cases in three departments, confirming predictions of higher incidence of the disease with the arrival of the rainy season, according to the monthly Haiti Humanitarian Bulletin published by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
There was an increase in cholera cases reported by the Health Cluster in the Artibonite, Nord-Ouest and Ouest departments, according to the report. In the beginning of March, the Ministry of Public Health reported 77 daily new cases in Haiti. According to PAHO estimates, some 200,000 additional people could contract cholera in Haiti in 2012.
submitted by Gigi Pomerantz
We've got a cholera training planned for april 11 - 14. Will train 40 CHWs in cholera prevention, identification, treatment and composting toilets.
less money for building toilets....but hopefully more prevention, and teaching people to use buckets in the home... Jean Lucho will teach that part, and Whistler St Louis who works with Judy (a 5th year med student) will teach the 'clinical' part.
gigi
If there are others that want to join us, they should contact Gilles Dorvil, 3637-4142 to coordinate.
