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Haiti

Haiti

International Activity Report, 2009   Political stability in Haiti, however weak, was achieved with the election of a new government in 2006. However, 2009 was characterised by rising food prices, chronic unemployment, and a dysfunctional healthcare system. Slum dwellers in the capital Port-au-Prince continued to live in deplorable conditions. Haiti has the highest level of maternal mortality in the western hemisphere (67 deaths for every 10,000 live births). Poverty, in combination with a mostly privatised healthcare system, has compromised maternal healthcare for women living in slum areas in Port-au-Prince. MSF was one of the main public health care providers in the Haitian capital before the earthquake in January, 2010,...
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Haiti unprepared in face of resurgent cholera

10 May 2012
Cholera cases are on the rise in Haiti
Patients affected by cholera are receiving a treatment in one of the MSF Cholera Treatment Center located in the capital city, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Port-au-Prince – 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 organisation Médecins Sans Frontières /Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said today. October 2011. Patients affected by cholera are receiving a treatment in one of the MSF Cholera Treatment Center located in the capital city, Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Photo: Frederik Matte/MSF   While Haiti’s Ministry of Health and Populations claims to be in control of the situation, health facilities in many regions of the country remain incapable of responding to the seasonal...
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A Month in Focus - April 2012

11 April 2012
Month in Focus April 2012
DRC, Chad, Paraguay, Uzbekistan, Haiti
DR Congo – An alarming surge in malaria Chad – On the brink of a peak in malnutrition Paraguay – The scourge of the vinchuca Uzbekistan – Tuberculose shows resistance Haiti – Medical certificates for cholera patients
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Voice from the Field: Marilize Ackerman is back from Haiti

01 February 2012
1. Marilize holds one of the premature babies, or ‘petit poids’ in Choscal Hospital, Cite Soleil, Haiti.
  Marilize holds one of the premature babies, or ‘petit poids’ in Choscal Hospital, Cite Soleil. Photo: MSF   MSF South Africa recruit, Marilize Ackerman (33), recently returned home after working in Haiti for eight months with MSF as a Human Resources and Finance Manager. She worked on two MSF hospital projects in the island nation’s capital Port-au-Prince. Here she gives a glimpse into life in Haiti two years after the earthquake.   “Most of my mission was spent at Choscal Hospital in the heart of Cite Soleil, the biggest and poorest slum in Haiti – not to mention the Northern hemisphere. Within hours of the earthquake in 2010, MSF had partnered with the...
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MSF in Haiti: Two Years on

11 January 2012
MSF teams treating cholera patients in Saint-Marc, Artibonite region in Haiti.
MSF teams treating cholera patients in Saint-Marc, Artibonite region, Haiti.
Two years after the devastating earthquake in Port-au-Prince, nearly 500,000 displaced Haitians are still living in extremely precarious conditions. MSF is still working to contain the cholera epidemic and to provide emergency medical care. Access to free care in Haiti remains indeed virtually non-existent for people who live in precarious conditions, those who are far from urban centers or those who can not afford health care in the private facilities that exist in Haiti. In the aftermath of the earthquake of January 2010, MSF launched the largest emergency response in its history, providing care for 358,000 people, making 16,570 surgical operations and making 15,100 deliveries over a 10-months period. During the cholera...
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Haiti: MSF increases hospital capacity in the area affected by the earthquake

10 January 2012
Haiti
Haiti earthquake, one month on
Two years after the earthquake, the health care system in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas is still in disarray. Most Haitians still lack proper access to emergency care. December 2010. Two weeks after the opening of the cholera treatment centre in Cap Haitien Gymnasium, the sensitisation team has moved from 6 members to more than 40 community health workers. Photo: Aurelie Lachant / MSF January 12, 2010 will forever remain engraved in Haiti's collective memory. Nearly everyone in the country lost a relative, friend or neighbour in the earthquake that hit that day, and many survivors continue to suffer physical or psychological after-effects. The piles of rubble and gaping holes in the streets...
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Haitian lives still threatened by inadequate cholera response

19 October 2011
Cholera treatment centre, Haiti
Two weeks after the opening of the cholera treatment centre in Cap Haitien Gymnasium, the sensitisation team has moved from 6 members to more than 40 community health workers. Photo: Aurelie Lachant/MSF
One year since the start of the ongoing cholera epidemic in Haiti, people all over the country are still threatened by the deadly disease. Healthcare services and measures to prevent the spread of cholera are still inadequate, medical aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned today.   Two weeks after the opening of the cholera treatment centre in Cap Haitien Gymnasium, the sensitisation team has moved from 6 members to more than 40 community health workers. Photo: Aurelie Lachant/MSF “Haitian authorities and international aid actors need to do much more to treat and prevent cholera,” said Romain Gitenet, MSF head of mission in Haiti....
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Haiti: “When cholera hits, it's life or death”

18 October 2011
Patients affected by cholera are receiving a treatment in one of the MSF Cholera Treatment Center located in the capital city, Port-au-Prince.
Moïse is thirty-three years old. He arrived a few hours ago, in a serious condition, at the cholera treatment centre in Thomassique, a small town in the Centre department in Haiti. Immediately rehydrated by drip and orally, his condition has rapidly improved;without setbacks he should recover in three days. MSF began supporting the treatment centre five weeks ago, when a new major outbreak of cholera was affecting the area and the existing centre was completely overwhelmed by the influx of patients. Without supervision or qualified staff present at the centre, patients were unable to get adequate treatment. To improve the situation an MSF team set up appropriate care of patients, hired and trained local medical staff responsible for...
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Haiti: Health Ministry takes over cholera treatment in Cap-Haïtien

18 October 2011
Haiti, MSF cholera treatment centre
Port-au-Prince, two patients affected by cholera are receiving a treatment in one of the MSF Cholera Treatment Center. Photo: Frederik Matte
One year after the cholera epidemic began, thousands of people in Haiti are still becoming infected every week. Even though healthcare services and measures to prevent the spread of cholera remain broadly inadequate across the country, there have been significant improvements in the Nord Department – one of Haiti’s ten administrative divisions - in recent months. This region continues to experience successive flare-ups, with an average of 200-500 cases recorded weekly, but Haiti's Ministry of Health is now managing treatment and Médecins Sans Frontières has just left the area.     October 2011. Port-au-Prince, two patients affected by cholera are receiving a treatment in...
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Haiti: In Port-au-Prince, the number of people affected by cholera keeps on rising

10 October 2011
Haiti: MSF Cholera Treatment Centre
Haiti: MSF Cholera treatment centre in Barrate, Port au Prince.
Cholera is still rife in Haiti and far from under control. Having ravaged other parts of the island in June, it is now returning to the Haitian capital with a vengeance. According to figures from the Ministry of Public Health and Population, at the end of August over 446,000 people had been infected by the disease and approximately 6,300 people had died from it. MSF cholera treatment center (CTC) in Barrate, Port au Prince. Photo: Jean Marc Giboux Since the first cases of cholera were confirmed in October 2010, MSF has treated almost 160,000 patients. Its teams have been deployed in nine out of the ten departments in Haiti. At present, the MSF teams are fighting cholera in Port-au-Prince as well as in...
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by Dr. Radut.