U.N.: Half of Haiti’s suspected cholera cases are children
Children now make up half of Haiti’s suspected 1,700 cases of cholera, the waterborne disease that has made a resurgence in the violence-torn country following a deadly gang war over the summer, and amid an ongoing armed blockade of the main fuel terminal and seaports.
“Since the onset of the cholera outbreak in Haiti, children below 14 years make up nearly half of the 1,700 suspected cases,” UNICEF, the United Nation’s leading child welfare agency, said Monday.
Haiti’s Ministry of Health has reported 1,752 suspected cases and 40 cholera deaths as of Saturday. It is feared that the actual number is significantly higher due to under-reporting. Nearly half of the reported cases are in the urban-poor area of Cité Soleil, the sprawling slum in Port-au-Prince where a violent clash between rival gangs in July left over 470 people killed, injured or missing, and where earlier this month, the first cases of cholera in more than three years were confirmed.
Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders, the international medical humanitarian organization, said the cholera outbreak is “extremely concerning.” It warns of a health disaster in Haiti due to the ongoing fuel crisis and chronic gang violence. Both are pushing the country’s healthcare systems to its limits, the organization said.
MSF said its teams in Port-au-Prince receive approximately 100 patients a day at the four cholera treatment centers the charity runs in the Turgeau, Drouillard, Cité Soleil, Champ de Mars and Carrefour neighborhoods of the capital, with a total capacity of 205 beds.
“Unsafe water is one of the main causes for the spread of cholera, so a lack of clean water as cholera resurges is disastrous,” said Auguste Ngantsélé, MSF’s medical coordinator in Haiti. “Without drinkable water, treatment, and good waste management, the risk of a spike in the number of cases is very high. This needs to be addressed urgently.”
Doctors treating cholera patients believe there is a direct correlation between the disease’s resurgence and the gang violence, which made it impossible for water trucks to access the slum amid the deadly clashes. The first cases of cholera were confirmed in the same isolated Cité Soleil neighborhood of Brooklyn, where armed fighting broke out in the summer. The community sits in a marshy coastal area just north of the Varreux petroleum terminal that is currently being blocked by the G-9 Family and Allies federation led by Jimmy Chérizier.
For weeks in July, both G-9 and another armed gang coalition known as “G-pèp-la,” led by Gabriel Jean Pierre from Cité Soleil, were engaged in deadly clashes that made it almost impossible for anyone to leave the community. Those who attempted to do so were shot at, often killed or injured, while women and girls were raped.
“The devastating impact of fuel restrictions and violence has made children the main victims of the outbreak,” said Bruno Maes, UNICEF’s Haiti representative.
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Maes said that the current lack of safe drinking water, soap, water purifying tablets and access to health services in Haiti makes it difficult for anyone, much less children, to survive cholera or any other waterborne diseases.
Since mid-September when the G-9 federation began blocking access to the country’s seaports and Varreux, health centers and hospitals across Haiti have been closing their doors or limiting services, including those with cholera treatment centers. The only fuel available to the public in Haiti is on the black market, and prices range from $13 to $23 a gallon in the capital and nearly double that in the countryside.
The United Nations has asked for a truce in order to create “a humanitarian corridor” in the country to get aid to those who need it, while the U.N. secretary-general, António Guterres, has backed a request by the government asking for a rapid deployment of armed troops to assist the Haiti National Police in taking back control of the ports and key infrastructure.
“Many health personnel and families that may contract cholera have difficulties finding secure routes to report to health facilities amidst insecurity and high transport costs,” UNICEF said. “Even when they reach a health service, it is likely to be without electricity, as there is no fuel to operate the generator. Water trucking, the main safe water source for many areas of Haiti, also cannot reach poor neighborhoods where solid waste is piling up in the streets.”
The agency currently needs about 70,000 gallons of fuel to serve nine out of 16 cholera treatment centers in Port-au-Prince and some partner hospitals. So far, UNICEF has been able to secure only one-third of this, which puts the lives of many women and children affected by cholera in danger, the agency said.
As part of the response, some aid groups are also trying to access oral cholera vaccines, which are in short supply.
