Earlier this year in January, Haiti was faced with one of the most catastrophic earthquakes ever recorded in their history. To add onto the struggles caused by the earthquake, Haiti is a third world country that does not have access to many of the resources needed to rebuild its pathetic infrastructure that it originally was in. They still have not finished rebuilding their capital city, Port-Au-Prince, and according to reports from The New York Times, they are still billions of dollars away from a full recovery. New problems are plaguing Haiti, though. Recently, there have been reports of abnormally high rates of cholera.
What is cholera? Cholera is an infection of the intestines that cause its victim to suffer from severe cases of explosive diarrhea. Diarrhea is known for causing dehydration, a simple solution to this could be drinking water. In this case, it is much more serious. With the right medicines, cholera can easily be cured. The problem with cholera and several other diseases similar to it in third world countries is that they do not have the simple resources available to them that we do in America. Not only is cholera fatal, but it is contagious as well. By drinking contaminated water that has not been purified, one will almost automatically contract the disease and without proper care will be dead within the next twelve hours.
There was a sudden outbreak of cholera in Haiti earlier this month. Hundreds of deaths were being recorded each day until they started providing aggressive treatment in the poorly funded hospitals of Haiti. The Doctors Without Borders charity foundation has been sending volunteer doctors down to Haiti to help with the hospitals and to help quickly lower the disease rates. Conditions have been improving drastically, for example, at a hospital in L’Estère, Haiti, they have seen approximately 400 patients and have only had ten deaths. They have expanded their staff to an impressive band of 28 doctors and nurses.
Don’t be quick to blame the earthquake for the cholera outbreak. The earthquare is not in fact related to the cholera epidemic. Port-Au-Prince for the most part was the only area in Haiti affected, however, Imogen Wall, a spokesperson for the United Nations said that it was upsetting to be in areas untouched by the earthquake and to witness suffering, “completely unconnected to that disaster” (October 25, New York Times).
Distraught faces of those who have lost loved ones to the murderous disease line the streets throughout all of Haiti, but it’s all smiles at the hospitals. At one hospital, a woman was spotted consoling a mother of an ailing child saying, “You made it here without him dying, you’ve already won the battle.”
With care easily becoming more accessible to Haitians, they are being notified to go to a medical clinic immediately after noticing the first signs of cholera. PAHO (The Pan American Health Organization), is saying that, “Our response is tailored to be prepared for a countrywide epidemic… at the moment we consider everyone at risk”. People are now being more careful with their health. Yahoo! reported that many residents are now sanitizing their hands and bodies after touching anything that could potentially be contaminated. Healthcare officials are making sure that each and every corpse is being disposed of properly. They hope to this pandemic under control soon, they have already made significant progress in a small amount of time.
