Miasma in Haiti--November 2015

 

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  Haitian Refugee Drinking Untreated Water from River Reservoir–Anse-a-Pitres (Photo by John Carroll)

  On November 16  the Dominican newspaper Listin Diario reported that about 20 Haitians were found lying on the ground in Anse-a-Pitres suffering from cholera. And the newspaper quoted a Haitian doctor who was “visibly shaken” regarding the cholera outbreak in Anse because she may not have enough equipment to treat her cholera patients. Haitian cholera victims are dying in Anse, but just two minutes across the border in Pedernales, Haitian nationals are being kept alive in the Pedernales Hospital which is functioning as it should.

  What year is it in Haiti right now? Is it 1850? Is cholera still thought to be caused by bad air or “miasma”? Is that really the famous Dr. John Snow standing there in the hot sun asking officials to remove a water pump handle near the refugee camps in Anse?

  This entire scenario of Haitians dying five years into the largest cholera epidemic in the world is just obscene.  

  And to make matters worse, the Dominican government just closed the binational river market on the border between Anse-a-Pitres and Pedernales in hopes of preventing more cholera from entering  the Dominican Republic. This market closure is very hard on the people of Anse because the drought this year diminished their harvest and many of the people are very hungry. They depend on the river bed market to function. 

  I wonder who had it worse—the Londoners with cholera that Dr. Snow tried to keep alive in 1850 or the Haitians with cholera in Anse-a-Pitres in 2015?

  Refugee Camp–Anse-a-Pitres (Photo by John Carroll)

  (Thank you to Crof Killian for posting the Listin Diario article.)

  John A. Carroll, MD

  www.haitianhearts.org