991029 A Race to Help Haiti-Michael

October 25, 2010
A Race to Help Haiti
Officials are working around the clock to stop the spread of a deadly disease
BY SUZANNE ZIMBLER

Nine months after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, more than a million people are still living in temporary camps in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. With so many people living in close quarters, officials have long feared a major outbreak of disease. Now, they are fighting to prevent a deadly disease from spreading to the camps.




A medical worker helps a mother and child at a hospital in Haiti.

Last week, in an area about 60 miles northwest of the capital, more than 3,000 people became sick with cholera (kol-er-uh). The disease can spread quickly when there is a lack of clean water and sanitation. Officials are racing to help those who are sick, and to prevent the disease from spreading to other parts of the country.
In the Water
Cholera is spread when people drink contaminated, or dirty, water. Authorities think that water from Haiti's Artibonite River is to blame for the outbreak. The river is the country's central drainage system. Waste flows into the river. Communities that do not have access to enough clean water have been drinking from the river.
"We know that the disease is affecting the community near the river," says Jean-Francois St. Felix, who works for Haiti's National Department of Water Supply and Sanitation. "We are in the middle of informing people in the region."
Education Is Key
Haiti has not had a major outbreak of cholera for more than a century. The disease is a threat in many parts of the world. There are an estimated 3 to 5 million cases every year.
"One of the biggest challenges is that Haiti is not particularly familiar with this disease," says Imogene Wall, of the United Nations. Aid workers are teaching thousands of families how to avoid the disease. Radio announcements are explaining the importance of hand washing. The International Red Cross is sending out text messages, telling people to drink only safe water.
Help Is on the Way
Aid agencies like Oxfam are making sure that affected regions have clean water and medical care. Since authorities were worried about an outbreak of disease, they stored medical supplies in the country ahead of time. As a result, Haiti has enough medicine to treat 100,000 cases of cholera.
Health experts are hopeful that they will be able to control the outbreak. "It's not difficult to prevent the spread to Port-au-Prince," said Health Ministry director Gabriel Timothee. "We can prevent it."


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991029 A Race to Help Haiti-Michael
Cholera is a big disease if you want to get rid of it you need to spend a lot of time. In Haiti, they have cholera around their country. I think the most reason why they have cholera in their country is that they don’t have good hygiene-conscious so they will get sick or other disease easily. The International Red Cross is helping in Haiti for the cholera and they also tell people to drink clean water instead of dirty water because dirty water may have germs and bacteria in it. I wish they will have better hygiene-conscious.