Cholera Taking Over Haiti (Online Assignment)

     A multitude of men, women and children are lying on benches and cots in overcrowded hospitals and courtyards doubled over in pain, limp with dehydration and dying daily. These Haitians are suffering from a rampant outbreak of Cholera, which is:

• a very infectious and very often fatal bacterial disease of the small intestine 
• typically contracted from infected water supplies
• and causes severe dehydration, diarrhea and vomiting

This terrible disease as not been seen in Haiti since the 1960's. The New York Times quoted Jean Michael Maximilien, a camp leader at one of the posts in Haiti, saying, "It travels with the speed of lighting, I've heard, and it can kill someone in fours hours. So, of course we're all on edge." So far, the outbreak has caused around 260 deaths and has more than 3,300 confirmed cases as of now. Sadly, many more are expected to die in the near future, before the disease is under control. It is hard to get a handle on the outbreak due to the way it is mainly spread, which is through contaminated and dirty water. Foul, infected, dirty water is the only water that the Haitians are drinking, which is making the spread that much easier.
     Many people in Haiti are extremely nervous for the spread of the disease to hit the capital, Port-au-Prince. Since a horrible earthquake struck he city earlier this year, the rebuilding of the city has been slow. Thousands of people are still living in unsafe conditions and crowded dirty areas where disease could spread like wildfire. The Central or Disease Control or the CDC, put out an advisory during Hurricane Katrina that said: "Diseases like cholera or typhoid are rare in developed countries, and do not typically occur after a natural disaster. Unless a disease is brought into a disaster area from elsewhere, any outbreaks that occur are almost always from diseases that were already in the disaster-affected area before the disaster struck." This just explains that the disease was already laying dormant in Haiti and was basically 'awakened' from the natural disaster of the earthquake. CNN interviewed Dr. Jon Andrus, deputy director of Pan American Health Organization and he said, "We expect these cases to increase and infection to emerge. We had put in an early warning to watch for these consequences, since the earthquake on January 12. So we are prepared f the numbers become more widespread. We are ready to handle this infection." This gives some hope to the people since there has already been some preparation in case of the unfortunate event that the outbreak got out of control in the capitol.
     There has been five cases reported in Port-au-Prince, but the Haitian government recently reported that they think he disease is starting to level off, and hopefully does so fully before the disease takes control of the destroyed, poverty stricken capitol of Haiti. The good news is that the five cases that have been discovered in the capitol, have all seemed to get the disease outside of the city, still they are trying everything they can to control the spread.

Prevention

MSNBC interview with Health Ministry Director Gabriel Timothee said, "It is not difficult to prevent the spread to Port-au-Prince. We can prevent it." This gives hope to the people of Haiti that there are people out there that strongly believe they can stop this killer, before thousands of more people die.

• Tightly limiting movement of patients 
• Careful and proper disposal of the corpses
• Safely importing Food
• Providing a clean, safe water supply 
• Medicine

There are also hundreds of support groups that you can join to help as well, like:

• UNICEF 
• World Vision 
• Doctors Without Borders

  
What can you do to help?