Haiti - Health : The number of Cholera cases increasing alarmingly
Thursday, Pedro Medrano, the coordinator of the fight against cholera in Haiti revealed a net increase in cholera cases in Haiti, which threatens to undermine the progress made in recent years in the fight against the disease "Unfortunately, due to lack funds and because of the rainy season, we passed in the last six months from 1,000 new cases per month to nearly 1,000 cases a week, for a total of 11.721 cases for 113 deaths recorded from January 1 to March 28, 2015," pointing out that with the beginning of the rainy season in June, the number of cases risks to accelerate, recalling that many NGOs UN partners have left the country for lack of funds and the number of treatment centers dropped from 250 in 2011 to 159 in 2014.
He predicts more than 50,000 new cases in 2015, while the number had fallen by 60,000 in 2013 to 28.000 in 2014, its lowest level since the beginning of the epidemic in 2010.
Mr. Medrano deplores that for the donor community, it is no longer a priority after four years of struggle against the epidemic, stressing that this is still an emergency, citing the risk to neighboring countries such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic...
Recall that the United Nations has launched a $2.2 billion ten-year program to improve the health infrastructure of the country, but the funds are lacking meanwhile to treat patients and prevent new cases. The UN wants to vaccinate 300,000 people this year in Haiti, but it still lacks 1.9 million. In total, the UN still needs $36.5 million in 2015, to fight against the epidemic in Haiti.
