Posts tagged Haiti earthquake 2010

Haiti Unprepared in the Face of Resurgent Cholera Cholera cases are on the rise in Haiti following the onset of the rainy season, and the country is not adequately prepared to combat the deadly disease, the international medical humanitarian organization MSF said today. “Too little has been done in terms of prevention to think that cholera would not surge again in 2012,” said Gaëtan Drossart, MSF head of mission in Haiti. “It is concerning that the health authorities are not better prepared and that they cling to reassuring messages that bear no resemblance to reality. There are many meetings going on between the government, the United Nations and their humanitarian partners, but there are few concrete solutions,” he said.Photo: Patients affected by cholera receive treatment at an MSF cholera treatment center in Port-au-Prince. Haiti 2011 © Frederik Matte/MSF

Haiti Unprepared in the Face of Resurgent Cholera

Cholera cases are on the rise in Haiti following the onset of the rainy season, and the country is not adequately prepared to combat the deadly disease, the international medical humanitarian organization MSF said today.

“Too little has been done in terms of prevention to think that cholera would not surge again in 2012,” said Gaëtan Drossart, MSF head of mission in Haiti. “It is concerning that the health authorities are not better prepared and that they cling to reassuring messages that bear no resemblance to reality. There are many meetings going on between the government, the United Nations and their humanitarian partners, but there are few concrete solutions,” he said.

Photo: Patients affected by cholera receive treatment at an MSF cholera treatment center in Port-au-Prince. Haiti 2011 © Frederik Matte/MSF

One year after a devastating earthquake killed an estimated 222,000 people and left 1.5 million people homeless on January 12, 2010, Haitians continued to endure appalling living conditions amid a nationwide cholera outbreak, despite the largest humanitarian aid deployment in the world. Now two years later, MSF is increasing hospital capacity in earthquake-affected areas as 500,000 people are still officially displaced and access to health care is nearly non-existent. Photo: Haiti 2010 © Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR

One year after a devastating earthquake killed an estimated 222,000 people and left 1.5 million people homeless on January 12, 2010, Haitians continued to endure appalling living conditions amid a nationwide cholera outbreak, despite the largest humanitarian aid deployment in the world.

Now two years later, MSF is increasing hospital capacity in earthquake-affected areas as 500,000 people are still officially displaced and access to health care is nearly non-existent.

Photo: Haiti 2010 © Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR

A mother and child rest in the pediatric ward of MSF’s hospital in the Bicentenaire area of Port-au-Prince. Active in Haiti since 1991, MSF has opened five hospitals, including this one, and fought a widespread cholera epidemic in the country since a massive earthquake struck in January 2010. More than 3,000 staff are providing orthopedic surgery and post-operative treatment to earthquake survivors and emergency obstetric and neonatal care to mothers and children, among other services. The cholera epidemic continues—after a mid-May spike in cases in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere in the country, MSF reopened cholera treatment units in several areas to relieve the pressure on existing facilities. Photo: Haiti 2011 © Yann Libessart/MSF

A mother and child rest in the pediatric ward of MSF’s hospital in the Bicentenaire area of Port-au-Prince. Active in Haiti since 1991, MSF has opened five hospitals, including this one, and fought a widespread cholera epidemic in the country since a massive earthquake struck in January 2010. More than 3,000 staff are providing orthopedic surgery and post-operative treatment to earthquake survivors and emergency obstetric and neonatal care to mothers and children, among other services. The cholera epidemic continues—after a mid-May spike in cases in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere in the country, MSF reopened cholera treatment units in several areas to relieve the pressure on existing facilities.

Photo: Haiti 2011 © Yann Libessart/MSF

Before the earthquake, the situation was already difficult in Haiti. Now, there is nothing left, there are no opportunities. But having to wait in Tabatinga is even worse.
32-year-old Olga, from the small room she shares with four other Haitians in Brazil. MSF teams have been monitoring the situation of Haitians in this small town, located at the border between Brazil, Colombia, and Peru, since November. The Haitian asylum seekers first began arriving in Tabatinga in March 2010, escaping a country devastated by a massive earthquake.

The first few days after the earthquake January, 12, 2010, MSF set up operating theatres under plastic sheeting and in shipping containers to stand up to the emergency in Port-au-Prince. Caesarean sections, amputations or wound disinfections… Each day, MSF teams performed an average of 50 operations. Such a situation was unheard of.

MSF launched the largest emergency aid operation in its history in the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, in which it attended more than 358,000 patients, carried out about 16,000 surgeries and assisted the birth of 15,000 babies. In the 12 months after cholera broke out in Haiti in October 2010, MSF treated more than 160,000 cholera patients, or 35 percent of the total cholera cases reported in the country.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is providing humanitarian aid to Haitian asylum seekers in Tabatinga, a town in the state of Amazonas, Brazil. MSF teams have been monitoring the situation of Haitians in this small town, located at the border between Brazil, Colombia, and Peru, since November. In December, MSF started distributing more than 1,300 personal hygiene kits and other relief items. The Haitian asylum seekers first began arriving in Tabatinga in March 2010, escaping a country devastated by a massive earthquake. More than 1,200 Haitians are currently staying in the town, two-thirds of whom say they were directly affected by the earthquake and came to Brazil in hopes of helping other family members who stayed in Haiti. Photo: Brazil 2011 © Alessandra Vilas

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is providing humanitarian aid to Haitian asylum seekers in Tabatinga, a town in the state of Amazonas, Brazil. MSF teams have been monitoring the situation of Haitians in this small town, located at the border between Brazil, Colombia, and Peru, since November. In December, MSF started distributing more than 1,300 personal hygiene kits and other relief items.

The Haitian asylum seekers first began arriving in Tabatinga in March 2010, escaping a country devastated by a massive earthquake. More than 1,200 Haitians are currently staying in the town, two-thirds of whom say they were directly affected by the earthquake and came to Brazil in hopes of helping other family members who stayed in Haiti.

Photo: Brazil 2011 © Alessandra Vilas

Hundreds of thousands of people still live under terrible conditions in makeshift camps. Access to drinking water and sanitation is very limited throughout the entire country, particularly in rural and remote areas. This situation promotes the spread of infectious disease. While the number of new cases of cholera has fallen considerably, we still see several hundred each week and the risk of seasonal resurgence remains very high. We must remain extremely vigilant.
MSF’s medical coordinator, Wendy Lai on conditions in Haiti two years after the earthquake.
MSF launched its first projects in Haiti in 1991, carrying out emergency programs during natural disasters and crisis situations. Immediately following the January 2010 earthquake, the organization undertook the largest emergency intervention in its history, treating 358,000 people, performing 16,570 operations and assisting at 15,100 births over a 10-month period. During the cholera epidemic that began in October 2010, MSF set up operations on an unprecedented scale. At the height of the crisis, some 4,000 health care providers were working at more than 75 facilities in Haiti. Nearly 170,000 patients with cholera symptoms were treated between October 2010 and November 2011, and MSF has a large-scale emergency preparation and rapid treatment plan in place in case of another widespread outbreak. Read more about what MSF is doing in Haiti now. Photo: Haiti 2010 © Aurelie Lachant/MSF

MSF launched its first projects in Haiti in 1991, carrying out emergency programs during natural disasters and crisis situations.

Immediately following the January 2010 earthquake, the organization undertook the largest emergency intervention in its history, treating 358,000 people, performing 16,570 operations and assisting at 15,100 births over a 10-month period.

During the cholera epidemic that began in October 2010, MSF set up operations on an unprecedented scale. At the height of the crisis, some 4,000 health care providers were working at more than 75 facilities in Haiti. Nearly 170,000 patients with cholera symptoms were treated between October 2010 and November 2011, and MSF has a large-scale emergency preparation and rapid treatment plan in place in case of another widespread outbreak.

Read more about what MSF is doing in Haiti now.

Photo: Haiti 2010 © Aurelie Lachant/MSF

On the two-year anniversary of the massive 2010 earthquake in Haiti, 500,000 people are still officially displaced and access to health care is nearly non-existent. As part of the largest intervention in the organization’s 40-year history, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) operates several emergency healthcare structures in Haiti, offering surgery, obstetric care, physiotherapy, and more.

Much of the capital’s health care infrastructure disappeared on January 12, 2010—and it was limited and not even fully operational prior to that date. The earthquake revealed and exacerbated the shortcomings of Haiti’s health care system. It will take a long time to rebuild. In the meantime, we are working to fill the health care gaps to the extent possible, while responding to potential new emergencies, such as cholera.
Gérard Bedock, MSF’s head of mission in Haiti. In the two years that have followed, MSF has built four emergency hospitals in the area affected by the earthquake, an area more than 2 million people call home.
January 12, 2010, will forever remain engraved in Haiti’s collective memory. Nearly everyone in the country lost a relative, friend, or neighbor in the earthquake that hit that day, and many survivors continue to suffer physical or psychological after effects. The piles of rubble and gaping holes in the streets of Port-au-Prince show that the city itself still bears the scars as well. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was working in Haiti before the disaster and lost 12 staff members in the earthquake. Two MSF hospitals—the La Trinité trauma center and the Solidarité OB/GYN clinic—were destroyed. In the two years that have followed, MSF supported a Ministry of Health hospital in the Cité-Soleil slum and built four emergency hospitals in the area affected by the earthquake, an area more than 2 million people call home. Photo: Haiti 2011 © Yann Libessart

January 12, 2010, will forever remain engraved in Haiti’s collective memory. Nearly everyone in the country lost a relative, friend, or neighbor in the earthquake that hit that day, and many survivors continue to suffer physical or psychological after effects. The piles of rubble and gaping holes in the streets of Port-au-Prince show that the city itself still bears the scars as well.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was working in Haiti before the disaster and lost 12 staff members in the earthquake. Two MSF hospitals—the La Trinité trauma center and the Solidarité OB/GYN clinic—were destroyed. In the two years that have followed, MSF supported a Ministry of Health hospital in the Cité-Soleil slum and built four emergency hospitals in the area affected by the earthquake, an area more than 2 million people call home.

Photo: Haiti 2011 © Yann Libessart

Rape was not made a criminal offence in Haiti until 2005. Violence against women was a problem in Haiti long before the earthquake, but the dangers for women have only been heightened in the earthquake’s aftermath. Most rape victims seen by MSF live in the insecure areas around Martissant in the south of Port-au-Prince, including Fontamara and Bolosse, where rape at gunpoint is a common occurrence. In 2010, 150 rapes were reported in Martissant’s emergency health centre. However this figure does not show the full picture, as victims of sexual and domestic violence are often reluctant to seek treatment or report the crime for fear of reprisals. MSF organises awareness campaigns in slum areas of the city, emphasising confidentially and the need to seek treatment for sexual violence within 72 hours. In October 2010, MSF increased its capacity to treat victims of sexual violence in Haiti’s capital, offering comprehensive psychological and medical treatment. Urban Survivors is a multimedia project by Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in collaboration with the NOOR photo agency and Darjeeling Productions, highlighting the critical humanitarian and medical needs that exist in slums the world over. Photo: © Jon Lowenstein/NOOR

Rape was not made a criminal offence in Haiti until 2005. Violence against women was a problem in Haiti long before the earthquake, but the dangers for women have only been heightened in the earthquake’s aftermath. Most rape victims seen by MSF live in the insecure areas around Martissant in the south of Port-au-Prince, including Fontamara and Bolosse, where rape at gunpoint is a common occurrence.

In 2010, 150 rapes were reported in Martissant’s emergency health centre. However this figure does not show the full picture, as victims of sexual and domestic violence are often reluctant to seek treatment or report the crime for fear of reprisals. MSF organises awareness campaigns in slum areas of the city, emphasising confidentially and the need to seek treatment for sexual violence within 72 hours. In October 2010, MSF increased its capacity to treat victims of sexual violence in Haiti’s capital, offering comprehensive psychological and medical treatment.

Urban Survivors is a multimedia project by Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in collaboration with the NOOR photo agency and Darjeeling Productions, highlighting the critical humanitarian and medical needs that exist in slums the world over.

Photo: © Jon Lowenstein/NOOR

Martissant is a densely populated district with more than 300,000 inhabitants in the south of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. During a demographic explosion in the 1990s, Martisssant grew increasingly overcrowded and anarchic. After localised groups began stockpiling weapons and transforming into gangs, a cycle of violence took hold. Shootings, killings, and bloody reprisals became the norm, and the resulting state of insecurity isolated people- particularly those living in remoter parts of the district. Many had only limited access to basic services. After the 2010 earthquake, the number of homeless people increased dramatically, but many of them could not get medical care because they could not afford entry into the privatised Haitian health system. Urban Survivors is a multimedia project by Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in collaboration with the NOOR photo agency and Darjeeling Productions, highlighting the critical humanitarian and medical needs that exist in slums the world over. Photo: © Jon Lowenstein/NOOR

Martissant is a densely populated district with more than 300,000 inhabitants in the south of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. During a demographic explosion in the 1990s, Martisssant grew increasingly overcrowded and anarchic. After localised groups began stockpiling weapons and transforming into gangs, a cycle of violence took hold. Shootings, killings, and bloody reprisals became the norm, and the resulting state of insecurity isolated people- particularly those living in remoter parts of the district. Many had only limited access to basic services. After the 2010 earthquake, the number of homeless people increased dramatically, but many of them could not get medical care because they could not afford entry into the privatised Haitian health system.

Urban Survivors is a multimedia project by Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in collaboration with the NOOR photo agency and Darjeeling Productions, highlighting the critical humanitarian and medical needs that exist in slums the world over.

Photo: © Jon Lowenstein/NOOR

Haiti: MSF Reorganizes Post-Earthquake Medical Services

Thirty-five seconds. That’s all it took for an earthquake to shatter the lives of millions of Haitians on January 12, 2010. Medical needs were immediate and massive. More than 300,000 people were injured and 1.5 million left homeless.

Then in October, a cholera epidemic struck, with 250,000 cases in the first five months. MSF treated almost half of these patients.

Today, the epidemic is resurgent and hurricane season is approaching. In response to the situation on the ground, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is reorganizing its services in Haiti. The needs remain high. In many places where MSF works, medical care was insufficient even before disaster struck. Full story.

2010Earthquake in Haiti After a massive earthquake hits Haiti on January 12, MSF launches one of its largest ever interventions, expanding its projects in the country from 3 to a high of 26, treating more than 173,757 patients, and performing more than 11,748 surgeries in the five months that follow. Learn more about MSF’s history at our website. Photo: Haiti 2010 © Julie Remy

2010
Earthquake in Haiti

After a massive earthquake hits Haiti on January 12, MSF launches one of its largest ever interventions, expanding its projects in the country from 3 to a high of 26, treating more than 173,757 patients, and performing more than 11,748 surgeries in the five months that follow.

Learn more about MSF’s history at our website.

Photo: Haiti 2010 © Julie Remy