Health

In a bold move, Haitian Prime Minister Lamothe took the UN to task regarding its culpability in the outbreak of cholera in Haiti, following the 2010 earthquake. He cited the statistics of nearly 9,000 Haitians, who lost their lives to cholera, with another 600,000 or more critically ill.

He made his appearance before the UN General Assembly to specifically confront the issue and ask the UN to step up its efforts to help Haiti stamp out "the world's worst cholera outbreak". To his credit, Lamothe made a proposal to create a joint commission to investigate the methods and applications that would absolutely end the epidemic for good.

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Every year scores of Haitians die from accidents, disease and many other causes that could have been successfully treated had they been treated properly in a well-equipped hospital emergency room. Haiti has ten million people but with a single hospital only in the capital city that offers advance trauma and critical care unit.

The country has a rugged and mountainous landscape. Many patients with survivable injuries like broken bones or other similar causes die on the bumpy roads because they cannot reach the hospital in time. It is a death sentence for Haitians who are unlucky enough to get sick or hurt more than a few miles from a good hospital. A country like Haiti was in dire need of Air Ambulance service for a long time.

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Amidst continued denial by the United Nations and its representatives of their culpability in the devastating cholera outbreak that ravaged what was left of Haiti after the destruction caused by the 2010 earthquake, they remain vocal about their intent to help the country eliminate the illness, from the position of unassociated good samaritan. Taking this stance, the U.N. has said it is prepared to help Haiti fight the epidemic and promised to do so by raising, at every possible opportunity, the $450 million it will need to keep this promise. The problem is that, following the announcement made in the latter part of 2012 by the U.N.'s General Secretary, Ban Ki-moon, less than half of the needed amount has actually been raised, while cholera is still alive and claiming lives in Haiti. The hope which a planned donor meeting of the highest level to raise funds was to bring has been put on hold until 2014.

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Although Haiti is vaunted as the poorest nation in its hemisphere, and its recent outbreak of cholera can be viewed as an indirect consequence of its economic state, it does not preclude other, more prosperous countries from being home to an epidemic of the deadly, intestinal infection.

Near the end of August, Cuba reported to the international monitors for health that they have received 163 new cases of the infection this year across three of their provinces, Camaguey, Havana and Santiago. 12 of those infected were visitors from as close as Latin American countries and as far away as Europe.

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Ambassadors of France, the United States, and Spain, on Thursday, August 2, signed a contract with the Ministers of Public Health and Economy for Haiti, that will see the Hospital of the State University of Haiti reconstructed. The reconstruction will be funded to a tune of USD 41.48 million.

This contact is under a cooperation program that has a total budget of USD 83.2 million. The contributions towards the project are as follows; Republic of Haiti will give USD 33.2 million, the French Development Agency (AFD) will contribute USD 25 million, and the U.S Agency for international Development (USAID) will contribute USD 25 million.

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Haitian Consulate General in Montreal informed that an arrangement would be made to honor and to pay tribute to Dr. Yvette Bonny. The honor was bestowed upon her on Wednesday June 12, 2013 at the premises of Haitian Consulate at 5:00 PM for her outstanding achievements and distinguished works.

The Haitian Consulate in Montreal chose Dr. Yvette Bonny, the great Haitian intelligentsia figure, under the label named 'A Woman, A Work'. The idea was to salute her for her achievements and the outstanding services she rendered to the medical community as a whole and also for being the first doctor in Quebec achieving successful bone marrow transplant and many other similar achievements throughout Eastern Canada.

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On Monday, June 17, 2013, Haiti reported its first suspected death caused by the H1N1 virus or the A flu. It is reported that the person who fell victim of the N1H1 was a resident of Nan Bannann's community that lives in Belle-Anse's southern city that is located at a distance of 110 kilometers southwest from Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. It was confirmed by a government official that the victim died in Thiotte's Sacred Heart Hospital that is located 65 kilometers to the east of Port-au-Prince.

According to reports, the person who is suspected to have died because of the N1H1 actually contracted this virus in the city of Anse-a-Pitres which shares a border with Dominican Republic, the country where 8 people have been confirmed dead because of the N1H1 virus.

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Marie-Louise Jean-Baptiste, MD and Cambridge Health Alliance physician, was awarded with Charles McCabe Faculty Prize (2013) of Harvard Medical School. She received the award at Daniel D. Federman Teaching Awards Celebration that was held at Harvard Medical School's TMEC Walter Amphitheatre on Monday, 6th of May, 2013. The Charles McCabe Faculty Prize has been awarded to the most outstanding teachers of Harvard Medical School since 1982. The honor is given to a highly selected group of best medical educators of the school.

Marie-Louise Jean-Baptiste was honored with this prize because of outstanding teaching performance in primary care clerkship of Cambridge Health Alliance and its Cambridge Integrated Clerkship or CIC of Harvard Medical School. CIC was launched in 2004 and it is the medical school's principal medical year's complete redesign. The CIC is considered to be a national and international model for reforms in clinical education.

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Following the warning from the Ministry of Public Health and Population in the Dominican Republic regarding the reappearance of avian flu (H1N1 virus) in their country, the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Haiti took its own precaution to protect the Haitian population.

Effective immediately, the Haitians government has instituted a ban. Importers and retailers of meat products, particularly poultry, eggs and live animals potentially infected or carriers of the Avian Flu from the Dominican Republic are prohibited from carrying these products until further order.

Can Haiti afford to be affected by Avian Flu? As we are currently dealing with the Cholera epidemic inherited from the Nepalese contingent of UN peacekeeping MINUSTAH, Haiti is faced with a new health threat.

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Life expectancy is defined as the average number of years a group of people live who are born in same year assuming that future mortality at each year stays constant. Life Expectancy at Birth is a parameter used for measuring the quality of life in a country.

The population of Haiti surged significantly after 1900 but the life expectancy in Haiti is one of the lowest in entire world. Infant mortality and birth rate are very high in Haiti. There are several reasons which drive the life expectancy rate in Haiti. The Republic of Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. The country is plagued by poor nutrition and healthcare services in the country are inadequate. According to the World Food Programme of United Nations, over 80% of Haitian population live below the poverty line. As a result, malnutrition is a big problem in Haiti and around 50% of the Haitian children have been found to be undersized. According to statistics, less than 50% of Haitians can access clean and safe drinking water.

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