Health - Haiti Observer Blog

Vaccines protect travelers from serious diseases. Depending on where you travel, you may come into contact with diseases that are rare in your country. It is recommended to get vaccinated at least 4 to 6 weeks before you travel. This will give the vaccines time to start working, so you're protected while you're traveling. Travelers can get typhoid through contaminated food or water in Haiti. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends typhoid vaccine for most travelers, especially if you are staying with friends or relatives, visiting smaller cities or rural areas, or if you are an adventurous eater.

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A good method of Cost accounting helps to identify possible inefficiencies and areas of necessary improvement.
A few years ago, a Boston based non-profit healthcare organization 'Partners In Health', worked in the health care system in Haiti and submitted a report on "Building Surgical Systems in Haiti". The report highlights that the 2010 earthquake resulted in thousands of donors, philanthropists, and international organizations coming to Haiti to offer services. For months they worked to save lives and ease suffering. What they did not do, however, was to contribute to strengthening Haiti's public health system while the main challenge to improve this sector was nothing but to getting doctors and care giver's commitment and involvement into the essence of the system.

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By Dr. Gérard Alphonse Férère, Professor Emeritus, Saint Joseph's University.

As part of his vulgar and spurious statements against Haiti and her citizens, Donald Trump allegedly declared that "all Haitians have AIDS". Such erroneous statement would illustrate the level of his paroxysmal lack of information about that proud and loving people. Hereafter, a clear historical and scientific discussion of what I call "The truth about the introduction of AIDS from the U.S. to Haiti". It was in 1981 that two occurrences of the disease were formally confirmed in the continental United States, but it is believed that these were not necessarily the first. Soon after, in 1982, a most incorrect and unfortunate decision by the American medical authorities was made, when rushing to judgment, they indiscriminately included all Haitians among their so-called "high risk groups", together with homosexual men and I.V. drug users. In that regard, positions were taken and official statements made in very irresponsible manners by people who should have known better. As a consequence of their ignorance, their lack of sensitivity and their unscientific behavior, a whole nation was stigmatized. And still remains maligned, as proven by Donald Trump's alleged accusation.

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Hôpital Sacré Coeur (HSC), a beacon of hope for the 250,000 people of Northern Haiti, is the largest private hospital in the North of Haiti. Located in the town of Milot, Haiti, the present day 200-bed hospital has been providing uninterrupted service for almost 30 years. The hospital started with Dr. Theodore Dubuque, Jr. when he visited Milot in 1986 from St. Louis to assess whether it was feasible to perform surgery at the 6-bed clinic with one physician and a single operating room. Till today, Dr. Theodore Dubuque, Jr. has made over 50 trips to Haiti to start and run this largest hospital in Haiti with financial support. Dubuque is the founder and past president of the CRUDEM Foundation, which supports Hôpital Sacré Coeur in Milot.

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On August 19, 2016, the former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced a new approach by the United Nations to cholera in Haiti. In his statement, he indicated that the UN deeply regrets the terrible suffering the people of Haiti have endured as a result of the cholera epidemic and that the United Nations has a commitment and moral responsibility to the victims of the cholera epidemic and to support Haiti in overcoming the epidemic.

The United Nation's new approach is intended to intensify efforts to eliminate cholera from Haiti and assist and support those most directly affected. The approach consists two tracks.

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Faculté des Sciences In­firmières de Université Episcopale d'Haïti or Faculty of Nursing Science of the Episcopal University of Haiti, (FSIL) was created in January, 2005 by the Presbyterian Church. Until today, it remains the only baccalaureate nursing school in the country.

Unlike the majority of other nursing schools in Haiti that only teach up to a diploma levels, their program is competency based which teaches and trains their nurses to critically identify case specific responsibility and develop problem solving model. The nursing students of FSIL receive practical clinical training at Hôpital Ste. Croix.

Scholarship is available to some students. However, those who receive scholarship support are obligated to commit two years compulsory service in Haiti before they receive their diplomas.

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A pregnant Haitian woman who came to Florida delivered a baby with microcephaly or with small head. According to the Florida Department of Health, the mother was infected with the Zika virus in Haiti before she came to the United States.

Microcephaly is a major birth defects often caused by the Zika virus where a baby's head is much smaller than expected. During pregnancy, a baby's head is expected to grows as the baby's brain grows. However, Microcephaly can occur if the baby's brain did not developed properly during pregnancy

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How many of you accidentally took a bite of cloves in eating some diri ak pwa and scream because it tasted so bad?Cloves or Jirof is one of the most commonly use spices in Haitian diet. It is often used for flavor when making some popular Haitian dishes such as diri ak djon djon, mayi moulen, griyo (for some), Kremas, etc.

It is said to be good for your kidney, spleen and stomach meridians. It can be used to treat hiccup and to fortify the kidney yang. Cloves is used in formulas for impotence or to clear vaginal discharge from yang deficiency, for morning sickness, vomiting and diarrhea. Cloves may be used for hypotonic muscles, including for multiple sclerosis.

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What's wrong with President Privert? We just learned that the President was scheduled to travel to the city of Jacmel to celebrate its Patronal feast of Saint Jacques and Philippe as well as the festival of agriculture and labor but was unable to make it.

He was unable to make the trip due to health issues. That is what the Communication Office of the presidency announced. Presiddent Privert however, took the opportunity to wish all Haitian workers, to all sectors of national life, and to all Haitians in general, a Happy Feast of Agriculture and Labor.

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A new research that just came out would confirms that it is no longer a death sentence for Haitians living with HIV/AIDS.

According to a research published in The New England Journal of Medicine, ten years after a free treatment program was introduced in Haiti for people infected with the HIV/AIDS virus, close to two third of the patients enrolled in the treatment were still alive. Out of 910 patients recruted at a Port-au-prince clinic, between 63 percent and 71 percent of them had survived 10 years.

The study found that the surviving rate in Haiti was similar to the rate found among gay men in the US who started antiretroviral triple therapy in the late 1990s

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