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Haiti: faced with the return of cholera, a vaccination campaign against a backdrop of security crisis
Published on :12/18/2022 - 15:46
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RFI
In Haiti, it is the beginning this Sunday, December 18 of a vast vaccination campaign against cholera which has been back in the country for three months. The objective is to vaccinate more than 10% of the population by the end of the year, but the conditions are very difficult in a country where gangs control a large part of the territory.
Haiti knows cholera well , unfortunately. When the disease first hit the country in 2010, brought in by Nepalese peacekeepers, it claimed 10,000 lives in nine years. Cholera is back , since October, it has spread rapidly throughout the country: about 15,000 suspected cases and 300 deaths.
The country has received more than a million doses of oral vaccine, it is still waiting approximately 500,000. The campaign only provides for one dose per person, and therefore for the moment a protection of six months and not two years, for cause, explains Unicef, of scarcity of the vaccine, because many countries are currently experiencing cholera epidemics.
Country controlled by gangs
The campaign is scheduled for December 18 to 22, then December 27 and 28, focusing on the most affected municipalities: Cité Soleil, Delmas, Carrefour, Port-au-Prince and Mirebalais. With the security crisis in the country, partly controlled by gangs and where kidnappings and exchanges of fire are commonplace, our teams will not be completely safe, worries UNICEF.
Unicef who urged gangs in areas they control to give unrestricted access to their vaccination teams.
The holiday season is likely to be a period of high transmission.
https://www.rfi.fr/fr/amériques/202...-de-vaccination-sur-fond-de-crise-sécuritaire
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Published December 18, 2022, 5:10 PM
Somehow, Haiti relaunches vaccination against cholera
Faced with an outbreak of the epidemic, Haiti's health services are sounding the alarm. They face a lack of vaccines and gang violence.
Haiti begins, this Sunday, a vast vaccination campaign against cholera, in the face of a resurgence of the epidemic, but the objective of reaching more than 10% of its population by the end of the year is threatened by gangs, who control a large part of the territory.
Cholera has spread rapidly across the Caribbean country since October. To date, the National Department of Epidemiology, Laboratories and Research reports 15,310 suspected cases, including more than 13,000 hospitalizations, and at least 305 deaths due to the bacteria. The country has already received 1.17 million doses of the oral vaccine and nearly 500,000 more will be delivered.
"The socio-economic and security crisis, which the country has been experiencing for several years, has contributed to the deterioration of the health conditions of certain populations."
Tristan Rousset, Pan American Health Organization
"Many countries are currently experiencing cholera epidemics, which means that there is a scarcity of vaccines," said Dr. Jean Bosco Hulute, UNICEF's health chief in Haiti. The campaign therefore provides for only one dose per person. “We know that one dose offers protection for six months”, against two years of protection with the usual intake of a second dose, he specifies.
Target the youngest
Organized from 18 to 22 and then 27 and 28 December, the vaccination campaign will focus on the most affected municipalities, including the capital Port-au-Prince, and target the youngest, because minors represent nearly half of the population. cholera case. “The category of children aged 1 year and over is a priority in this vaccination campaign,” says Dr. Hulute.
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But the operation promises to be all the more complicated as the country is ravaged by violence. The doctor worries that in these areas controlled by the gangs, the health teams “will not be completely safe”. Unicef thus urged that it be allowed, “where there is control of the gangs, to offer unlimited access to the teams, because that is what will allow the population to receive these drops of vaccine orally that can protect her.
In 2010, Haiti experienced the first cholera epidemic in its history. In nine years, more than 10,000 people had died from the disease, introduced into the country by Nepalese peacekeepers.
“Situation conducive to outbreaks”
The current epidemic "is not as explosive" as the one that began in 2010, according to Tristan Rousset of the Pan American Health Organization. “Nevertheless, cholera is spreading, as in 2010, in all departments of the country. And the socio-economic and security crisis, which the country has been experiencing for several years, has contributed to the deterioration of the health conditions of certain populations, making the situation conducive to outbreaks.
( AFP )
https://www.lematin.ch/story/tant-b...la-vaccination-contre-le-cholera-101267172061
