News Americas, PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Thurs. Oct. 20, 2011: More than 6,500 people Haitians have died from cholera since the onset of the disease in the country and more continue to be affected.
There continues to be dangerous and unpredictable fluctuations in the number of cholera cases. For example, in the fourth week of August, 2011 MSF treated 281 patients for cholera in Port-au-Prince; by the end of September, cases jumped to 840 per week, said Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières.
“Haitian authorities and international aid actors need to do much more to treat and prevent cholera,” said Romain Gitenet, head of mission of MSF in Haiti. “There is an urgent need to improve healthcare, provide access to clean water, and ensure proper sanitation. Clean water and sanitation are essential to halting the spread of cholera.”
The organization said Wednesday that one year since the onset of the cholera epidemic in Haiti, people all over the country are still threatened by the deadly disease and healthcare services and measures to prevent its spread remain inadequate
“Even though the international community has pledged huge sums of money to assist Haiti, thousands of Haitians are still getting sick from cholera every week, and some are still dying,” said Gitenet.
Since the first cases of cholera were identified in October 2010, more than 465,000 Haitians have fallen ill, according to Haiti’s Ministry of Health.
“Cholera patients continue to die from dehydration in remote areas of the country simply because there are no oral rehydration points or treatment facilities nearby, or because of a lack of trained healthcare personnel or community outreach workers,” Gitenet added. “This is unacceptable.”
Since the beginning of the cholera epidemic in October 2010, MSF has treated more than 160,000 people for cholera, about 35 percent of total cases reported nationwide. MSF teams are currently responding to cholera in the Martissant, Carrefour, Delmas, Choscal, and Drouillard neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince, and in the Ouest, Nord, and Artibonite departments.
