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<font size=3>CHOLERA OUTBREAK IN HAITI <br><br>
Cholera has killed over 300 people in the valley along Haiti’s Artibonite
River, a rural region north of Haiti’s capital; another 4,700 people have
been sickened. The acute diarrheal disease is a bacterial infection
of the intestine which spreads when food or water become contaminated
with human waste containing the cholera organism. Cholera causes profuse,
watery, high volume diarrhea that is rapidly dehydrating. The infection
can be fatal to young children, the elderly, and the undernourished.
Without immediate medical treatment, people can die of
dehydration.<br><br>
UN officials are investigating sewage draining into a tributary of the
Artibonite River from a Nepalese base of UN (MINUSTAH) troops as a
possible source of the deadly outbreak. Al Jazeera reports that the unit
moved into the area in mid-October.<br><br>
CHOLERA: DISEASE OF POVERTY<br><br>
Cholera is a disease of poverty caused by lack of access to safe, clean
water. The Lower Artibonite, once Haiti’s rice farming region, was hit
hard economically by competition from cheap US rice after lowered rice
import tariffs were imposed on Haiti beginning in the mid-1980s.
<br><br>
Haiti has not had a documented case of cholera since the 1960s, but
conditions in the lower Artibonite placed the region at high-risk for an
outbreak of cholera even before the earthquake, according to Dr. Joia
Mukherjee, chief medical officer for Partners in Health. <br><br>
GEORGE BUSH SETS CRISIS IN MOTION<br><br>
In 2008, Partners in Health working with Robert Kennedy Center for Human
Rights documented that in 2000 the Bush Administration blocked vital
life-saving loans for water, sanitation and health from the Inter
American Development Bank to the progressive government of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide. This deliberate political maneuver to undermine
Haiti’s democratic government had a direct impact on the city of St. Marc
(population 220,000) and region of the lower Artibonite (population
600,000), among the areas slated for upgrading of the public water
supply, depriving the people of their right to safe water. <br><br>
Meanwhile, health authorities warn that while the outbreak remains
concentrated in the Lower Artibonite region, it is inevitable that there
will be some cases of cholera in Port-au-Prince. Five cases have already
been reported in the city among people who had traveled there from the
affected rural areas. <br><br>
10 MONTHS LATER, CAMP CONDITIONS VIOLATE INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS<br><br>
Conditions in the capital’s densely populated refugee camps could readily
spawn a widespread cholera epidemic, as families interviewed recently by
human rights groups have exposed critical shortages of clean water,
sanitation, food and proper shelter. An Al Jazeera report this week
featured video footage of 18 neglected latrines for 3,500 people. Four
latrines in Accra Camp, where 17,000 people reside, are so filthy no one
will use them. Children play in dirt muddied from rain. Clean water
is only available to those who can purchase it; many camp residents have
complained that Red Cross water makes them sick. <br><br>
1.3 million Haitians living in the vast “tent” cities of Port-au-Prince
are in the path of a rapidly progressive illness whose potential was
identified in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. Yet ten months
later, with millions of dollars in donated aid relief, the proper
infrastructure to provide safe living conditions in the refugee camps is
utterly lacking. The rights of Haitian people to internationally mandated
standards for displaced persons have been profoundly violated. <br><br>
WHAT TO DO<br><br>
In the short term, health workers and community activists are mobilizing
to carry out intensive education and prevention campaigns to control the
spread of cholera, and get clean water to the camps. <br>
The fundamental issue, however, remains the political crisis which denies
Haiti democracy and human rights, and underlies persistent impoverishment
of Haiti's people. As long as the predatory agenda of the United States,
foreign and elite interests prevails in Haiti, the rights of the vast
majority of Haitians are threatened. It is time to listen to the voices
of Haiti’s popular movement calling for an end to the UN military
occupation, now entering its 7th year. It is time to demand free and fair
elections that include Haiti’s largest political party, Fanmi Lavalas,
and time to heed the widespread call for the return of Jean-Bertrand
Aristide.<br>
<br>
<br>
For latest news, see Haiti Action Committee on FACEBOOK and at
<a href="http://www.haitisolidarity.net/">www.haitisolidarity.net</a> and
<a href="http://www.haitiaction.net/">www.haitiaction.net</a><br>
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</font><h1><b>Cholera Outbreak Highlights Clean Water Crisis
</b></h1><font size=3>Submitted by CHAN on October 28, 2010 - 20:00 <br>
<a href="http://canadahaitiaction.ca/content/cholera-outbreak-highlights-clean-water-crisis" eudora="autourl">
http://canadahaitiaction.ca/content/cholera-outbreak-highlights-clean-water-crisis<br>
<br>
</a>By Ansel Herz,
<a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53320">IPS News
Service</a><br>
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Oct 28 (IPS) - The man arrived from Arcahaie, near St.
Marc in central Haiti where a cholera outbreak exploded last week,
initially overwhelming the local medical grid. It was an hour's journey
to a hospital in Lafiteau, near the capital, where he died on
Sunday.<br><br>
"We tried to give him some liquids but it was too late," Dr.
Pierre Duval told IPS. He said it was the second cholera death in three
days. Five other patients who arrived from the epidemic zone showed the
same symptoms: profuse liquid diarrhea and vomiting.<br><br>
They looked gaunt and sickly on beds inside the tiny hospital's dimly lit
patient ward, taking up one of its three rooms. Family members said they
had bathed and eaten, then fallen gravely ill.<br><br>
The two patients who died in Lafiteau are not counted among the 303
officially-recognised cholera deaths in Haiti. A United Nations
spokesperson said they were not "confirmed" cases of cholera
because they occurred outside the epidemic zone and lab tests had not
confirmed the presence of cholera bacteria.<br><br>
Dr. Duval said no officials or medical teams had visited his hospital
since the outbreak began.<br><br>
"The mission is preparing for a nationwide cholera outbreak,"
the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
spokesperson Jessica DuPlessis told IPS, before adding, "I'm sure
there are gaps in the response at this point in time."<br><br>
Haitian and U.N. officials are citing a dwindling number of new
fatalities each day as an indication that the cholera outbreak is
"leveling off" and "stabilised" in central Haiti,
while saying the peak of the epidemic is still to come.<br><br>
"Affected zones are increasing. More capacities for implementation
and coordination are needed" in central Haiti, according to a
situation report by the St. Marc sanitation cluster of humanitarian
groups. A video report by Al Jazeera English showed human waste from
toilets at a Nepalese U.N. peacekeeping base running off into the river
in Mirebalais, where there are over 50 confirmed cholera cases.<br><br>
On Wednesday, a medical clinic operated by the charity group Samaritan's
Purse in Cite Soleil reported treating a patient for "rice water
diarrhea" and vomiting. The clinic's physician believes it to be
cholera, according to an alert on the Haiti Epidemic Advisory System, an
independent biosurveillance network.<br><br>
The patient did not come from Haiti's central region, where the epidemic
broke out, unlike the five cholera cases in the capital already confirmed
by authorities. Cite Soleil is an impoverished slum on Port-au-Prince's
northern tip, a 30- minute drive from Lafiteau. There are 20 cases in the
capital under investigation, a Tuesday U.N. logistics cluster report
says.<br><br>
Humanitarian groups say they are promoting hygiene and educating the
capital's populace about cholera, which can spread easily through
contaminated water and food. Some groups distributed soap in tent camps
where 1.3 million people still live exposed to the elements nine months
after the January earthquake.<br><br>
"Some of them do nothing because of lack of funding," according
to an internal overview of humanitarian activities by the water and
sanitation cluster.<br><br>
Charpon Davidson, 22, received soap from Catholic Relief Services (CRS)
at Camp Carradeux, where at least 20,000 people live in tents and
makeshift tarps. "They can't just give us soap as a solution. There
are a lot of people already carrying the disease," he said.<br><br>
"If we can't drink treated water, then we'll never have a solution
to this sickness," Davidson told IPS. "Because where the
problem started, in Artibonite, it's water - water that people take, they
drink, they eat - where the disease started." Another woman asked
the reporter if cholera was a natural disease or a poison from outside
the country.<br><br>
Camp Carradeux was battered weeks ago by a fierce storm that destroyed an
estimated 10,000 tents. A walk-through of the lower camp showed that most
families who lost tents, but not all, had received new ones. A few were
given tiny backpacking tents that stand barely three feet off the
ground.<br><br>
A chain-link fence was recently erected around an area in the camp where
CRS plans to build 650 one-room structures called transitional
shelters.<br><br>
Down the road from Carradeux, a gate with a white Catholic Relief
Services sticker faces the street. Inside is a sloped area crammed with
about 300 families living under fraying tents and tarps, with a driveway
in the middle running up to a second CRS-stickered barrier.<br><br>
The camp is on the property of Catholic Relief Services just outside its
materials depot. Humanitarian goods pass by the camp every day, but its
residents have no water supply because their plastic water tanks are
empty - just like a camp in Cite Soleil that IPS described in a previous
report.<br><br>
"We're inside the depot of CRS. Now, we're told to wash our hands
before eating. The epidemic is present. CRS said they'd help us. They
said that," said Jacques Pierre, the camp's committee
leader.<br><br>
In August, the camp's three pit toilets were full of human waste. At the
time, Jacques told IPS his request for a functioning set of toilets was
met with threats from CRS personnel to force them off the property. But
after another aid group put pressure on CRS, construction began. They now
have four working toilets.<br><br>
"They started to do some small things, but actually what's necessary
for us is water," Pierre said. "That's what is most important
for us and for kids with diarrhea. The epidemic is becoming grave now, it
may be just starting. So we need potable water to drink as well as food -
these are most important for us."<br><br>
Asked if any organisation had come to educate them about cholera, Pierre
replied, "No, we haven't seen any group come here and say anything
to us. We've been ignored here in this space."<br><br>
The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported in July that Catholic Relief
Services had spent $30 million out of $140 million raised for earthquake
relief in Haiti. Some $21 million came from the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID), designated specifically for water and
sanitation services in Port-au-Prince's displacement camps.<br><br>
A senior member of another relief group, who requested anonymity, told
IPS that CRS does not intend to install water purification systems in the
camps until next year. "That seems like a long time for someone
living in the camps," the aid worker said.<br><br>
The water and sanitation coordinator for CRS confirmed it has no plans to
install water purification systems in camps at this time, but is
delivering extra-chlorinated water to some camps by truck. A joint report
in September by the City University of New York's Haiti Initiative and
Haiti's Faculty of Ethnology found that 40 percent of camps don't have
access to water and 30 percent have no toilets.<br><br>
But it's not just Port-au-Prince's makeshift camps that urgently need
water. The percentage of the population without access to safe drinking
water increased by seven percent from 1990 to 2005, according to a 2008
report by Partners In Health, a medical organisation currently responding
to the cholera outbreak in Haiti's central region.<br><br>
"Combined with unsanitary conditions, the lack of water is a major
factor in exacerbating Haiti's health crises," the report
notes.<br><br>
The Interim Reconstruction Commission of Haiti has approved only one
water and sanitation project, designed to expand the public water supply
in Port-au-Prince. It would cost $200 million over five years, but is
only 57 percent funded by international donors at this time.<br><br>
<br><br>
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