Diarrhoea, measles reported among Haiti quake survivors: WHO

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100129/ts_afp/haitiquakereliefaidhealthdiseasewho_20100129184358


Diarrhoea, measles reported among Haiti quake survivors: WHO
AFP

Fri Jan 29, 12:40 pm ET

GENEVA (AFP) ? Cases of diarrhoea, measles and tetanus have been reported in Haiti, the World Health Organisation said Friday as it expressed concern about the spread of such illnesses in camps for quake survivors.

"Several medical teams report a growing caseload of diarrhoea in the last two to three days," said WHO spokesman Paul Garwood.

"The are also reports of measles and tetanus, including in resettlement camps, which is worrisome due to the high concentration of people," he told journalists.

UN agencies and the Haitian government are aiming to launch a vaccination campaign against measles, tetanus and diphtheria next week.

Just 58 percent of Haitian infants were immunised before the quake, Garwood said.

He highlighted a "critical" need for surgeons in south Haiti with an estimated 30 to 100 amputations being carried out every day in some hospitals, while supplies of anaesthetics and antibiotics were also needed.

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: Diarrhoea, measles reported among Haiti quake survivors: WHO

Waste Threatens to Create Killer Diseases in Haiti Camps

Saturday, January 30, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti ? A lack of sanitation threatens to create killer diseases in the vast refugee camps where hundreds of thousands of earthquake survivors have crammed in together, relief officials said Saturday, as the need for latrines increasingly joined food and water and shelter as major concerns.

Just one portable toilet serves about 2,000 people in a sprawling camp across from the collapsed National Palace, forcing most to use a gutter next to where vendors cook food and mothers struggle to bathe their children.

"We wash the vegetables first from water brought in by trucks, but a lot of times the water isn't clean," said Marie Marthe, 45, cooking a large pot of collard greens, carrots and goat as flies gathered on her daughter's diaper. "We don't have any choice."

With homes across the capital reduced to rubble, survivors have crammed tightly into plazas and other open spaces ? so tightly that it is hard to find a place to dig latrines. "In some parks there is no physical space," said UNICEF's coordinator for water and sanitation, Silvia Gaya.

"As of yesterday we were in the process of digging latrines for about 20,000 people," Gaya said, adding that 1,100 squatting platforms were arriving Saturday, to be distributed in camps and covered with plastic sheeting for privacy.

Nearly three dozen organizations are joining in a U.N.-led effort to build latrines and handle solid waste disposal, said Dr. Jon Andrus, deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization. Authorities also plan to build more permanent resettlement camps with plumbing and sewage and have identified some locations.

The results of these efforts aren't yet evident in many places.
"I haven't seen sanitation at any of the camps," said Dr. Louise Ivers, Haiti clinical director for Partners in Health. She fears "a mass outbreak of measles, which would really be potentially devastating for a camp where there are 10,000 people living."

Medical workers are also worried about tetanus, as well as dengue and malaria, both mosquito-borne diseases.
Few tents have been supplied to the quake's survivors, exposing people to the elements. Signs begging for help in English ? not Haitian Creole ? dot nearly every street corner in Port-au-Prince.

It could take weeks to get the 200,000 tents needed for Haiti's homeless, said Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue, the culture and communications minister. Haiti now has fewer than 5,000 donated tents and coordinating the aid operation remains a problem.

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