Following a dramatic increase in cases of cholera, after a particularly active rainy season (2,000 cases recorded in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince between mid-August and mid-October), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in collaboration with the Haitian authorities, including the Ministry of Justice has launched a vaccination campaign to curb the spread of cholera in the country's prisons.

ICRC efforts come thus complement the national immunization program of 2014 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-12338-haiti-cholera-success-of-the-second-vaccination-campaign.html launched by the Ministry of Public Health and Population, with the support of the World Health Organization and its Regional Office for the Americas.

"This is the first time that such operation target the prison population," explained Agathe Stricker, head of the ICRC delegation in Haiti "Cholera outbreaks are recurrent in Haitian prisons since the disease has appeared on the island in October 2010 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-1701-haiti-epidemic-in-prison-cholera-kill-guilty-and-innocent.html . We took the opportunity to extend the national campaign to prisons." In all, some 5,800 prisoners should be immunized against cholera in 16 prisons in the country, which will help to reduce the risk of contagion in detention centers, where access to health care is often very limited.

This vaccination campaign will last approximately two weeks.

See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-2821-haiti-cholera-icrc-activities-in-prisons.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-1686-haiti-epidemic-national-penitentiary-30-cases-7-deaths.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-1673-haiti-epidemic-cholera-makes-victims-in-the-prisons.html

HL/ HaitiLibre