Cholera

Last week the writer Mario Rizzolio and I went into the central area of Haiti called the Artibonite to see the work being done at the Cholera Treatment Centers. Since the outbreak in October of this year, more than 700 people have died and the number continues to rise. It has now spread out to other cities including north to Gonaives (famous for it's annual floods) and south into the capital of Port au Prince. Despite all efforts, this outbreak looks set to spread across the entire country endangering the lives of not only the weak and vulnerable, but the apparently fit. At the treatment centers I saw an elderly man beside a fit looking adolescent. And that wasn't the only time. At a nearby hospital I saw rooms packed to overflowing with people who I didn't expect: middle aged women, thick and strong, muscled men I'd expect to see outside moving heaving things around with ease, teenagers who are usually flirting and hanging out. It most definitely wasn't babies and elderly. What this means to Haiti is beyond me, but I see a big fight coming if this disease is to be stopped. I've attached a few photos but the full story and massive photo gallery can be read and seen at www.minustah.org. 

Photos Logan Abassi UN/MINUSTAH

A young boy is examined by a doctor at a hospital adjacent to a Cholera treatment center in Lester, a small town in central Haiti. He was given rehydration formula and sent home.

This is the little girl from the minustah.org story, 7 year old Benshelove. It was immediately apparent that something was amiss with the little girl. She was draped over her mothers shoulder, eyes half closed completely slack. The mother passed the waiting line, an exam was conducted and she was sent directly to the CTC.

An elderly man lays beside an adolescent boy in a CTC. Both are receiving intravenous liquids to help hydrate them.

A mother watches over her son while another little boy watches. Both boys are suffering from Cholera, a horrible disease that leaves you vomiting and with horrible diarrhea and can lead to dehydration so bad it can kill you.

This little boy was in a CTC in Port au Prince. While there are relatively few cases at the moment in the capital, the general concern is that if it catches it could race through the camps for displacement people that house more that a million people.

A mother comforts her baby at a CTC in Port au Prince.