Image: Map of the Sundarbans, part of the Ganges River Delta, where Cholera first emerged. Source: World Wildlife Fund

nytimes.com - February 6th 2017 - Donald G. McNeil Jr.

Two hundred years ago, the first cholera pandemic emerged from these tiger-infested mangrove swamps.

It began in 1817, after the British East India Company sent thousands of workers deep into the remote Sundarbans, part of the Ganges River Delta, to log the jungles and plant rice. These brackish waters are the cradle of Vibrio cholerae, a bacterium that clings to human intestines and emits a toxin so virulent that the body will pour all of its fluids into the gut to flush it out.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

reliefweb.int - January 25th 2017

Main Points

Humanitarian interventions are taking places in hard-to-reach areas in line with a plan to access remote locations using various means of transportation.

The recently released Real Time Evaluation (RTE) report of the international response to Hurricane Matthew recommends adjustment to the ongoing humanitarian response alongside with measures to strengthen resilience and disaster risk management in Haiti and long-term changes concerning the humanitarian system.

An increasing number of bloody diarrhea cases have been reported in Sud and Grand’Anse regions raising concern among Health actors.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Direct Relief staff stage hundreds of pallets bound for Haiti in the organization’s Santa Barbara warehouse on Dec. 20, 2016. The shipment, valued at $39.9 million, is the largest in the organization’s 69-year history.

directrelief.org

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Dec. 28, 2016 – Direct Relief today airlifted 82 tons of medical aid to Haiti to help treat cholera and other diseases that have spread widely since Hurricane Matthew struck in October, incapacitating the country’s already overstretched health care system.

Direct Relief’s warehouse staff worked through the holidays to prepare 258 pallets of essential medications and supplies with a wholesale value of $39.9 million. The shipment – the largest by value in Direct Relief’s 69-year history – traveled by a chartered cargo jet from Los Angeles to Port-au-Prince.

Dozens of health care companies that support Direct Relief’s humanitarian health efforts contributed the supplies, augmented by funds contributed by donors to Direct Relief specifically for Hurricane Matthew assistance.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Video: design that heals: documentary trailer video courtesy of MASS design group

designboom.com - 21 September 2016 - Philip Stevens

In the wake of the devastating earthquake that hit haiti in 2010, MASS design group partnered with a leading health care provider to design a state-of-the-art healthcare facility for cholera. The disease, which had not existed in haiti for more than a century, quickly became a huge problem following the disaster, with patients treated in temporary tents that became hot and difficult to keep sanitary. 

Working alongside les centres GHESKIO, MASS design group not only built the treatment center, but incorporated an on-site wastewater treatment facility to thwart the re-contamination of water and consequent spread of disease.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

crofsblogs.typepad.com - December 4th 2016

Two months after Hurricane Matthew devastated southwestern Haiti, thousands of people are still without adequate shelter, food and potable water, and some remote communities have not received assistance. 

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are witnessing a deterioration of living conditions in the heavily affected areas. In Sud and Grand’Anse departments, MSF set up mobile clinics to evaluate the general health conditions of children.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

webtv.un.org - 1 Dec 2016

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today apologized to the people of Haiti, expressing deep regret for the loss of life and suffering caused by the country’s cholera epidemic, and outlined the way forward including immediate steps to stem the outbreak and long-term support for those affected – while also highlighting the need for adequate funding of the proposal.

CLICK HERE - United Nations News Centre - UN’s Ban apologizes to people of Haiti, outlines new plan to fight cholera epidemic and help communities

CLICK HERE - Secretary-General's remarks to the General Assembly on a New Approach to Address Cholera in Haiti [Trilingual version, as delivered] [scroll down for English]

CLICK HERE - United Nations General Assembly - A new approach to cholera in Haiti - Report by the Secretary-General (16 page .PDF report)

submitted by John Carroll

un.org

30 November 2016 – The response to cholera in Haiti will be a “long and thorough battle,” but the United Nations will stand by the Haitian people and authorities, Stéphane Dujarric, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General, on the eve of the launch of the Organization's new approach to tackling the epidemic in the country.

The new approach was announced last August and will be launched by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the UN General Assembly on Thursday, 1 December. It includes rapid interventions in areas where cases are reported and the prevention of future high-risk public health crises.

The new approach on cholera also focuses on people and proposes the establishment of a program of material assistance and support to Haitians directly affected by the disease.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Image: The hospital in Beaumont was completely destroyed by Hurricane Matthew. Midwives have been deployed to serve women in areas where health systems have been devastated. © UNFPA/Eddie Wright

unfpa.org - November 28th 2016 - Vario Serant

"I was twisting in pain this Friday,” 31-year-old Emmanuella Jeanty told UNFPA, describing her labour pains. She was in Beaumont, a town in southwest Haiti where Hurricane Matthew had left a trail of devastation just one month earlier.

Life was already rough for women and their babies before the hurricane.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

A mother and her 7-month-old daughter sit beneath a mosquito net at a hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia.  Roberto Schmidt /AFP/Getty Images

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Implications of insecticide resistance for malaria vector control (4 page .PDF file)

npr.org - by Jason Beaubien - November 22, 2016

. . . "there's growing evidence that mosquitoes are developing resistance to the insecticide used in the nets.

Now the World Health Organization has just completed a 5-year, 5-country study looking into whether nets might be becoming less effective."

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

David Nabarro, United Nations secretary-general’s special adviser leading the cholera response in Haiti.
Photo by: Cia Pak / U.N.

devex.com - by Amy Lieberman - October 26, 2016

As it scrambles to ensure cholera doesn’t surge in Haiti the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, the United Nations is coming up short on funds.

A $120 million emergency flash appeal for relief and recovery work remains only 28 percent funded, now more than three weeks after the storm hit Haiti on Oct 4. Even more questions linger over how the U.N. will fund a planned $400 million Multi-Partner Trust Fund, half of which would go toward material compensation for victims of cholera and their communities. The fund is meant to complement U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s acceptance of responsibility for bringing cholera to Haiti following an earthquake in 2010.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Photo by John Carroll

blogs.pjstar.com - by John Carroll, MD - November 2, 2016

October 27, 2016

“The surest way to be caught flatfooted by disasters is to not know or understand, or else ignore, the value of the land and people who should have been protected, commensurate with the degree to which others depend on what they produce. This is the case with Haiti’s disregard for the values of the Greater South Region which is basically all that lies below and west of the crossroads of Leogane.”

Stuart Leiderman

————

We left Cayes early this morning and headed south and west. And the further we traveled, Matthew’s wrath and destruction was even more horrific. Coconut and palm trees were snapped or uprooted everywhere. Houses were smashed. Roofs were missing. And debris littered the beach down the entire coast. Police stations, courthouses, and churches were destroyed everywhere.

by John A. Carroll, MD - www.haitianhearts.org

October 29, 2016

Family from Chantal just told me that a zone called LaCotte has much cholera. Five people in same house died. Unable to give exact date.

------------------------

October 29, 2016

Port Salut hospital served by two Cuban docs--very nice. Fidel and his brother also supplied the Ringers Lactate for the hospital . . .

------------------------

October 29, 2016

On Thursday spent day on Southern coast--Cayes, Torbeck, Port Salut, Coteaux, Damassin, Port a Pigment, Kalapa, Chardonnieres. We were fording some small creeks/rivers in the truck, but Les Anglais River too deep and wide so we stopped. The trucks were very few here cause road in South so horrible. I would imagine Hiroshima like this. Port Salut CTC had 30 patients according to nurse last week but only 3 when I was there. Port Salut is a MSPP hospital and made of cement and seemed structurally sound even though it was right on beach. 

------------------------

October 29, 2016

The biggest problems I see are lack of food and water for almost 4 weeks now. The roofs are getting patched with tarp or corrugated metal ("toll"). Groups of kids run after the vehicle looking for food.

------------------------

October 29, 2016

United Nations Special Adviser David Nabarro meeting and supporting people in Jeremie, Haiti, which was severely affected by Hurricane Matthew. Photo: UN Haiti

un.org

18 October 2016 – Hurricane Matthew, which ripped through Haiti 13 days ago, has left more than 700,000 people in an “extremely difficult situation,” United Nations Special Adviser David Nabarro said today, and while steady progress is being made, led by Haitians themselves, the response must be accelerated as the needs are still great, frustrations are high, and access to hard-hit areas remains tough.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)