Back in June 2015, Partners in Health (PIH) Canada published a blog post reporting on the devastating Cholera outbreak that had been occurring in Haiti[1]. More than three years later Cholera is still unfortunately a part of daily life in Haiti, however the number of cases and deaths per year has dramatically decreased.
Cholera is a waterborne illness spread by contaminated drinking water. In the absence of latrines or public sewage systems, the world’s poor often drink from the same river or stream used for defecation — infecting water supplies. This means that developing nations, and areas affected by natural disasters are often at risk of Cholera outbreaks. In the case of Haiti, this small country has the unfortunate luck of being both a developing nation and a nation routinely affected by natural disasters.
Since first being introduced to Haiti in 2010 by UN peacekeeper, nearly 10,000 people have been killed by the dangerous bacteria; and countless more have fallen ill [2]. Relief came to the people of Haiti in 2012 when large scale vaccination programs were launched to protect the people from the harmful bacteria. PIH was among one of the outbreak’s first responders in Haiti. Within several months, PIH had set up 11 cholera treatment facilities throughout the country and began treating the sick[3]. These vaccination programs were highly successful in reducing the total number of Cholera cases, and defying expectations by successfully protecting 90% of adults and 94% of children[4]. From all accounts it seemed as though the people of Haiti were finally recovering from the horrific Cholera outbreak which resulted after the terribly earthquake that struck the region in 2010.
That was until October 4, 2016, when Hurricane Matthew struck the small island nation. As expected with this water-borne disease, after the hurricane hit there was again an increase in the number of cholera case and deaths. Thankfully, PIH and other relief agencies was there and ready to help the survivors. PIH directly treated 1,682 patients at following the hurricane and worked with the Haitian Ministry of Health to help vaccinate an additional 800,000 Haitians.
The people of Haiti have certainly come a long way in their nearly eight-year fight with Cholera, but they are not finished yet. As of last year, there were still nearly 5,000 new cases reported and approximately 80 deaths due to a Cholera infection[5]. It was just over a year ago that the World Health Organizations (WHO) Global Task Force on Cholera Control releaser their report “Ending Cholera: A Global Roadmap to 2030.” This report strategically outlines a new global approach to reducing all cholera related deaths by 90 percent by the year 2030[6]. WHO plans to achieve this goal by implementing a internationally organized use of vaccine programs, volunteers, and not-for-profit health organizations. In Haiti, PIH remains the largest non-profit health care provider, and as such we will continue to work there in to protect the citizens and support WHO in reducing (an maybe eliminating) deaths and illness due to Cholera.
[1] https://pihcanada.org/haiti-continues-to-battle-cholera-outbreak/
[2] https://www.pih.org/article/mission-stop-cholera-haiti
[3] https://www.pih.org/article/mission-stop-cholera-haiti
[4] https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2012/07/17/156920472/cholera-vaccination-test-reached-targets-in-haiti?ft=1&f=2100771
[5] https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/2017-may-4-phe-epi-update-cholera.pdf
[6] http://www.who.int/cholera/publications/global-roadmap/en/
