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The death toll from the Haiti
cholera outbreak has now passed 800, and it is feared that some 200,000 more
could contract the disease with eleven thousand already hospitalised since the
outbreak began. This is the first outbreak of cholera in Haiti for nearly a
century so medical supplies were not on hand in readiness nor were medical staff
familiar with the disease nor how to treat it and neither was population itself
were not educated to prevent its spread
It needs to be remembered that
the Haitian hospital and clinic infrastructure such as it is both before and
after the earthquake of early 2010 simply cannot cope with this rapid influx of
patients and there are genuine fears that if the outbreak cannot be contained it
will spread exponentially throughout the makeshift camps housing one million
displaced from the earthquake and across the capital of Port-au-Prince.
A spokesperson for the UN whilst
appealing for £102million to fight the water borne disease, expressed genuine
fears that efforts to date would be overrun by the epidemic. Aid agencies are
planning for a worst case scenario. But the longer term effects will resonate
for years to come. Haiti has a population of just over nine million people of
whom 250,000 died in the earthquake, that's the equivalent of every man, woman
and child in Wolverhampton or Nottingham dying and leaving behind fractured
families, childless children, and damaged futures. Should the cholera outbreak
claim as many lives as feared, the tiny island community will have lost over 5%
of its population in under a year to disasters. One in twenty people.
There is growing resentment
across Haiti, as the above video demonstrates, that the Haitian government and
the UN are not doing enough to stem the flow of the disease. A community already
haunted by the consequences of the earthquake, and with daily reminders that the
reconstruction has barely begun, live in fear that they will succumb to cholera
and have their already poor life opportunities devastated even further.
Rapid support is required and you
can assist by contacting on the charities listed below:
www.savethechildren.org.uk
www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk
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