tagged w/ Haiti earthquake
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Presenting "Just Reasoning" a Caribbean Talk & Discussion show covering issues from news & politics, sports & entertainment to lifestyle & culture. If it matters to Caribbean People, we're "just reasoning" about it.Presenting "Just Reasoning" a Caribbean Talk & Discussion show covering... more
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The story that best describes Haiti's last year is not from a slum, nor from a cholera clinic. It's not to be found in the rubble—but in a courtroom in Texas.
In November, 2010, Lewis Lucke, a former U.S. ambassador to Swaziland and former USAID official in Haiti, filed suit against Haiti Recovery Group Ltd. for some $500,000 in unpaid fees for the tens of millions of dollars in contracts Lucke secured for the group in the days after the earthquake. After leaving his USAID position, Lucke immediately signed a $30,000 a month "consulting" contract with the Haiti Recovery Group, a conglomerate formed by several American contractors with the specific goal of securing U.S. funding. Lucke used the contacts developed while at USAID to score the conglomerate over $20 million in contracts. Then it canned him. Sucker.
Lucke's take is typical of a Haiti that's become a massively swelled teat on which NGOs profitably suckle. Overall, Haiti has become one of the greatest money laundering operations in history, an island engine turning public funds into private profits.
What's more, U.S. taxpayer dollars are, against Presidential directive, being funneled from the United States Agency for International Development to Billy Graham's charities for use in Christian proselytizing—all while building Sarah Palin's 2012 campaign army.
"At that time, they were not open to the Gospel, and now they are," said "Festival of Hope" director Sherman Barnette, of the difference in Haiti before and after the earthquake. The festival was held on January 9, in Haiti's National Soccer Stadium. It was put on by Franklin Graham in cooperation with his Samaritan's Purse charity and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Franklin—William Franklin Graham III—has been head of the Association for ten years. He is the successor to his father, who is now 92, and who has appeared infrequently in public these last few years.
A month before the event, Sarah Palin had appeared in Haiti beside Graham, urging followers to help "those less fortunate" by contributing to Samaritan's Purse. "It is still here doing the tough work," Palin said. She was gone less than 48 hours later.
Exactly what the tough work Palin spoke of depends on who you're talking about. It could be raising millions more dollars that Haitians will never see. Or, in the case of Samaritan's Purse, whose Haiti work is being heavily funded by the taxpayer-funded USAID, it could be to “take back their country from voodoo, despair, and sin," one of the charity's stated goals for the "Festival of Hope." As Graham said of Haiti in his address at the Festival, "…the biggest need is the spiritual need." (Graham and his crew are especially obsessed with the elimination of voodoo, as it comes up again and again in Purse literature. A recent personal update on work in Haiti from Franklin Graham himself reads, "Through our partnership, the three original churches have been able to establish 28 more—including one in a village that was infamous for voodoo….") Video of the heavily promoted fundraising event has been erased from the Samaritan's Purse website as a result of our questions to USAID.
Somewhere around 10,000 NGOs now operate in Haiti, without any organization. Much of the money that was raised in the nation's name has not been spent. In some cases, it seems this is intentional.
The Disaster Accountability Project estimates that a year after nearly $11 billion was raised or pledged ("Text HAITI! to donate $10!), only half has been spent. In some cases, not even that. By November, Catholic Relief Charities had reported spending just 32 percent of the $192 million it raised for Haiti.
Many NGOs say the reason they are reluctant to spend more is that it may be wasted. But as DAP's Ben Smilowitz discovered in his investigation with the Red Cross, the organization is treating the interest generated on the $500+ million "trust fund" it raised (and has not yet spent) for Haiti relief as "unrestricted revenue."
A report on U.S. contracts for reconstruction found that only $1.60 of every $100 awarded goes to Haitian firms, essentially meaning that the brunt of Haiti funding actually functions as stimulus for economies elsewhere. An audit by USAID’s Inspector General found that 70% of the cash awarded to the two largest U.S. contractors was spent on equipment and materials (bought outside of Haiti), meaning just 8,000 Haitians a day were hired instead of the promised 25,000 a day.
Meanwhile, American corporations see the push to rejuvenate rural Haitian agriculture as a chance to, literally, sow the seeds of future profits. No matter that Haiti is broke, and will be broke for a long time. Monsanto has rigged it so that you, the taxpayer, will be underwriting those profits.
Monsanto donated tons of corn and vegetable seed to Haitian farmers and has committed to donating hundreds of tons more in the coming months. But these seeds are hybrids, engineered not only so that they cannot naturally reproduce, but to assure Haitian farmers remain in hock to Monsanto in the future. Of this donation, Monsanto had the unbelievable balls to claim “There are no contractual obligations between Haitian farmers and Monsanto since this is a donation." Responding to whether or not the donated seeds will force farmers to need "additional inputs" (i.e., trademarked Monsanto products), the company said "technically, it can be planted without any additional inputs."
Pressed about why Monsanto didn't just provide open pollinating seed, a spokesperson said, "Open pollinated seeds would be a great option if they produced as much crop as a hybrid seed." That's like saying, nobody should bother driving a Honda Civic because it doesn't perform like a Maserati.
But here's the best part. Monsanto added that it contacted NGOs in Haiti and that those organizations will "support farmers with recommendations and resources [including] helping farmers decide whether to use additional inputs (including fertilizer and herbicides)." Two of the NGOs Monsanto identified are the WINNER organization and World Vision, both heavily funded by USAID. This means your tax dollars will be used to purchase any "additional inputs" from Monsanto.
To understand where the Haitians are headed, just look to Malawi, which Monsanto itself points to as a goal for Haiti. In 2005, droughts devastated Malwai. Monsanto donated hybrid seeds. Today Malwai has achieved food security. But It turns out, what Malwai did was recreate the American model by subsidizing farmers to use Monsanto hybrid fertilized seeds. Malawi's farmers have now converted to a one-crop, undiversified, exporting agriculture model that is dependent on its government to subsidize production—by buying from Monsanto. Today Monsanto's market share in Malawi is 50%. No wonder it holds up Malwai when speaking of Haiti.
(Of course, Haiti needs to be a corn-producing nation now, since its former rice economy was obliterated by Bill Clinton, whose subsidies for U.S. rice farmers destroyed Haiti's rice industry. As an Oxfam report notes, the total of U.S. aid to Haiti is nearly $80 million less than the $434 million annual subsidies for U.S. rice production. That's rice that taxpayer-funded NGOs now buy to help feed starving Haitians, in what is maybe the darkest joke of all time following Clinton's appointment as co-chair of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission.)
more at http://www.theawl.com/2011/01/our-government-funded-mission-to-make-haiti-christian-your-tax-dollars-billy-grahams-son-monsanto-and-sarah-palinThe story that best describes Haiti's last year is not from a slum, nor from a... more
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http://VisionProject.org
VisionProject.org (photographer Les Stone) showcases the devastation from 2010's massive earthquake, while emphasizing the lack of original infrastructure to rebuild off of.
Joe Alicastro is the Chair of the Broadcast Journalism department at the New York Film Academy and Associate Director of VisionProject, an organization that showcases newsworthy content mainstream media is not focusing on.
http://www.visionproject.org/galleries/haiti_general_gallery.htmhttp://VisionProject.org
VisionProject.org (photographer Les Stone) showcases the... more
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NYFA1
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“Sun City Picture House” is a very engaging documentary short film by David Darg and Bryn Mooser. After the devastating earthquake rocked Haiti last year, food and medical aid poured into the island country, but in the months that followed a pair of Hollywood actresses and their friends had another idea. They wanted to build a movie theater. Maria Bello, who starred in the Adam Sandler comedy “Grown Ups,” and “Tron” actress Olivia Wilde, have documented the efforts of the group of people that brought the theater to life in this new, documentary short.
The documentary focuses on Haitian aid worker Raphael Louigene, whose dream was to build a movie theater, and the two American aid workers who helped him realize that dream by constructing it in just four days: Bryn Mooser from Artists for Peace and Justice, and Dave Darg, who works for Operation Blessing. Mario Bello stated, “The thing that’s needed most in Haiti right now, besides the immediate relief efforts, is joy. And that’s what this movie is about.” This article also presents a photo-gallery of stunning photographs of life in Haiti’s tent cities by New York photographer Wyatt Gallery.
This piece includes a number of high-resolution color photographs, a memorable slide show and the documentary short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/the-sun-city-picture-house-hollywood-comes-to-haiti/“Sun City Picture House” is a very engaging documentary short film by... more
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As we all know that before the earthquake Haiti has had all kind of charitable organization groups opened everyday online or off the internet, which seems to be grown now even more after the earthquake.
So, on this video, what do you think? http://bit.ly/hIrMnfAs we all know that before the earthquake Haiti has had all kind of charitable... more
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1thang
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On January 12, 2010, so much came crashing down in Haiti—on people who lost their lives, on people who lost everything but their lives. And it was only the beginning of the suffering.On January 12, 2010, so much came crashing down in Haiti—on people who lost... more
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Things have only gotten worse since the earthquake.
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January 12, 2011, will mark one year to the day that the devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti, resulting in what is arguably the worst natural disaster in modern history. Of the 1.5 million Haitian people who lost their homes in the earthquake, the majority are still living in makeshift tent cities, and the promised billions of dollars in foreign aid have yet to materialize. While financial donors and peacekeepers have resources that vastly overshadow those of the Haitian government, a lack of coordination in their endeavors has hampered the country’s efforts to recover.
“Tent Life: Haiti” is a very timely collection of stunning portraits of dignity, hope and joy by New York photographer Wyatt Gallery, inspirational photographs that show the reality of Haitian lives a year after the earthquake’s destruction and its aftermath. Gallery’s photographs present an artful and unselfconscious study of the resilience of an irrepressible people. They are beautiful narrative illustrations of the lives of a people experiencing a painfully arduous process of recovery, but they don’t romanticize the tent cities or the desperate living conditions of the Haitians who were rendered homeless by the earthquake.
Rather than using the medium of photography mainly as an attempt to understand what has happened in Haiti, Gallery’s portraits reveal a sense of intimacy and closeness with the Haitian survivors, as well as a genuine wish to be helpful. His work stands as a tender expression of the unexpected and unlikely sense of hope that he discovered in the residents of the Haitian tent cities.
This piece presents a number of inspiring, deeply engaging high-resolution color photographs, a memorable photo-gallery of additional images, a documentary short film and an HD-version of the official music video, “We Are The World 25 For Haiti.”
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/tent-life-in-haiti-portraits-of-profound-dignity-in-the-wake-of-devastation/January 12, 2011, will mark one year to the day that the devastating 7.9 magnitude... more
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Natural Disasters came at us HARD this year, killing thousands upon thousands - but the scary thing is...we're mostly to blame.Natural Disasters came at us HARD this year, killing thousands upon thousands - but... more
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Riots spread to several Haitian cities and towns yesterday, as protesters blaming peacekeepers from Nepal for a cholera epidemic exchanged gunfire with United Nations soldiers.
One demonstrator was shot dead by a UN peacekeeper during an exchange of gunfire in Quartier Morin, the UN mission said.
No one has yet been able to establish where the cholera epidemic started or who started it but the locals are blaming the Nepalese UN troops who moved into a base beside the Artibonite river in early October. There had been no cholera in Haiti previous to this and the strain of the disease appears to be from south Asia. The base that the soldiers are in has sanitation problems and a week later the river was contaminated and people in the area started vomiting and getting diarrhoea. This information was enough for the local population as officials said more than 1,034 people had now died in the outbreak.The multinational UN peacekeeping force has been trying to keep order in Haiti since 2004.A UN statement blamed the violence on political agitators and said troops fired in self-defence.Riots spread to several Haitian cities and towns yesterday, as protesters blaming... more
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The death toll is quickly approaching 1,000 and health workers worry that its impact on earthquake-torn Port-au-Prince will be grave. The United Nations estimates that as many as 200,000 people could be sickened within six to 12 months.
Anger over the cholera outbreak has led to violent demonstrations today as protesters set fire to a police station and clashed with U.N. forces in Cap-Haitien, a city on the north coast. One protester was killed. Many Haitians blame a Nepalese U.N. contingent for causing the outbreak when sewage from their camp leaked into the Artibonite.The death toll is quickly approaching 1,000 and health workers worry that its impact... more
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Added On November 8, 2010
Shipments of prosthetic limbs are headed for Haiti. Affiliate WSVN reports.
Posted: Today at 6:20 pm EST
HIALEAH, Fla. (WSVN) -- A huge shipment of prosthetic limbs is set to bring hope to a nation that has experienced a ton of turmoil this year.
In January, a major earthquake struck the island nation of Haiti. Then, a deadly cholera outbreak claimed the lives of hundreds and continues to run rampant in the country. Just last week, Haiti was hit by Hurricane Tomas, which caused major flooding in a nation that is still recovering from the earthquake.
In spite of all the hardships Haiti has faced in 2010, hundreds of prosthetic limbs from Hialeah are scheduled to arrive in the country this week. About 2,000 people lost their limbs in the January earthquake. "This I-beam construction fits onto that, providing the fit for the prosthetics," Biosculptor Adam Finnieston said.
Knights of Columbus made a $1 million donation to help purchase the limbs from Finnieston's company. "I was touched with what I saw, and I'm blessed that I have the opportunity to continue to help," said Finnieston.
Project Medishare is also a part of the special delivery to Haiti, which should take care of 600 women and children for the next two years. Medishare provided treatment to over 30,000 patients at a number of field hospitals in Haiti after the devastating earthquake, and remains on the island. Dr. Bob Galey of Project Medishare said, "The stigma of those that have lost limbs is that somehow, something occurred in their life, and that they have been marred as having been a bad person. Imagine being a child and being faced with this for the rest of your life?"
"If they're not up on their feet, they're not going to survive, and they're not going to have normal opportunities, so this is really what we call evening the playing field," added Dr. Barth Green, the founder of Project Medishare.
The shipment is set to leave Hialeah on Tuesday.Added On November 8, 2010
Shipments of prosthetic limbs are headed for Haiti.... more
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Hurricane Tomas lashes already devastated Haiti
By the CNN Wire Staff
November 5, 2010 5:35 p.m. EDT
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* NEW: Rain stops falling in the capital
* Reports tell of destroyed houses, downed trees and flooded rivers
* Aid workers are already struggling to keep up with a cholera outbreak
* Tomas could dump 15 inches of rain over Haiti and cause flash flooding and mud slides
PART ONE…
Port-Au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Already devastated this year by a killer earthquake and a deadly cholera outbreak, Haiti felt the brute force Friday of Hurricane Tomas, which could dump up to 15 inches of rain and trigger flash floods and mud slides.
The hurricane's punishing rain and wind pounded Haiti as the storm churned offshore.
As of 5 p.m. ET, the storm's center was about 90 miles (145 kilometers) east of Guantanamo, Cuba, and about 70 miles (110 kilometers) southwest of Great Inagua island in the Bahamas, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida. Earlier Friday, Tomas had passed within about 140 miles (230 kilometers) of Port-au-Prince.
In the westernmost tip of Haiti, which juts into the Caribbean Sea and is closest to the hurricane, there were reports from the town of Jeremie of destroyed houses, downed trees and flooded rivers, said Marie-Eve Bertrand, communications manager for CARE in the nation.
Also, she said, CARE workers near the coastal city of Leogane reported the area has been inundated with nearly 5 feet of water. Flooding from a nearby river had entered some tent encampments and temporary shelters, Bertrand said.
Tomas was also felt in Port-au-Prince, the nation's capital, but the worst of the storm appeared to have passed there after rain pounded the city all night. By Friday afternoon, the rain had stopped falling.
"The skies have gotten a little cloudier, but people are out and about," said Andrea Koppel, director of international communications with the American Red Cross, who spoke to CNN from Port-au-Prince. "The music is blaring from some of the communities here."
Relief worker Roseann Dennery of Samaritan's Purse was near Cabaret, about 20 miles north of Port-au-Prince, on Friday morning, touring camps that hold some of the 1 million people left homeless by January's 7.0-magnitude earthquake, which killed some 250,000 people.
"It's almost eerie," she said. "It's rainy, it's dark and there's really not a lot of movement."
The few people moving from tent to tent were wrapped in sheets and cloth to provide some protection against the constant rain, she said. The ground was soaked and some low-lying areas had minor flooding.
Some people rode out the storm in open-air community centers with supposedly sturdy roofs, she said. But many just huddled in their tents, waiting for the wind and rain to pass. Most didn't have anywhere else to go.
"A lot of them do not have families or relatives," said Dennery.
She said her agency, an international Christian relief organization, has evacuated 30 staff members from Leogane out of fear of mud slides there.
Michael Dockrey, the director in Haiti for the International Medical Corps, also expressed his deep concern Friday.
"Particularly," he told CNN, "with mud slides that can cut off whole communities. We have pre-positioned medical supplies, tents, tarps and staff in areas that we know will be isolated."
Aid workers already were struggling to keep up with the cholera outbreak, which has killed nearly 450 people and hospitalized about 7,000. The bacterial disease causes diarrhea and vomiting that can lead to deadly dehydration within hours.
"It's obviously stretched us all real thin," Dockrey said. "We could certainly use more help ... as can all the other responders."
The hurricane will only make matters worse.
"Even if Tomas only brushes Haiti, it may exacerbate the epidemic, facilitating the spread of the disease into and throughout metropolitan Port-au-Prince, where a third of the population remains homeless and in camps," the International Organization for Migration said.
Some Haitians scurried Friday morning through the rain-pelted streets of Port-au-Prince, looking for somewhere to seek shelter, reported CNN en Espanol's Diulka Perez. They were told to go to churches or the homes of friends and family, but there are significantly fewer churches or homes still standing after January's massive earthquake.
There was also no public transportation available to take people anywhere, Perez reported.
The problem is compounded, she said, because there's no central source of information. Haitians are having to rely on word of mouth to obtain information.
Nor are Haitians eager to leave their tent shelters, because the government cannot guarantee they will have someplace to return to after the storm passes.
CONTINUED…
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRYI374io5SbNB1AzBdSkPrB2aAipfwE7XM1sh4wqMqiQ--wWY&t=1&usg=__YkjBCL-JrfetZLzbC3uiDunMGxQ=Hurricane Tomas lashes already devastated Haiti
By the CNN Wire Staff
November 5,... more
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As tropical storm Tomas speeds toward Haiti, threatening to turn into a hurricane before it passes just west of the island Friday morning, some 1.3 million people are virtually trapped in Port-au-Prince’s flimsy tent cities.
In the countryside, hundreds of thousands more Haitians still live in tents following the 7.0 earthquake the leveled the capital and surrounding areas in January.
Authorities have advised anyone living in makeshift camps to seek refuge in sturdier buildings, but many say they don't have that option.
“The majority of people have nowhere to go,” says Stefan Reynier, the head of mission for Doctors Without Borders in Léogâne, 18 miles west of the capital. “Those people will not be protected.”
This is despite the fact that more than 100,000 homes in Port-au-Prince sit vacant and in need of only minimal repairs since an earthquake rocked the country in January, according to aid organizations in the country. Each home could be repaired with only days worth of work and several thousand dollars in supplies, they saAs tropical storm Tomas speeds toward Haiti, threatening to turn into a hurricane... more
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Poor, battered and homeless, Haitians face new killer
By Richard Allen Greene, CNN
Cholera epidemic sparks fears in Haiti
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Children are suffering the most as cholera spreads
* They're weak, frail and scared, an aid worker says
* Aid agencies urge people to drink only clean water and wash their hands often
* Even regions not hit by the earthquake are suffering now
(CNN) -- Battered by a devastating earthquake, left for nearly a year without real homes, promised aid that failed to arrive, the people of Haiti now face a new killer, and the littlest children are among the hardest hit.
"The heart-wrenching piece of all of this is the children, who we have seen are suffering the most," aid worker Roseann Dennery said from the desperately poor Caribbean island nation.
She doesn't flinch in describing the effects of cholera; the water-borne disease has claimed at least 259 lives so far and is spreading quickly.
Children "are coming in with hard-to-control diarrhea and vomiting. Their little lives are frail, weakened. And so scared," she said in an iReport.
"Robens Jeune and his 2-year-old son came into the clinic. His little boy looked up with wide eyes and sat on the cot, scared and suffering. We started an IV and sat with him and his father to quiet his crying," said Dennery, who is with a Christian aid organization called Samaritan's Purse.
"Today, he just started throwing up," the boy's father told Dennery as he placed his hand on his son, Frantzley.
"I was on the way to the Saint-Marc hospital and someone told me that there was a clinic here, closer to home. So we came. And he has perked up, he is feeling better. I am hopeful he can live through this," Jeune told the aid worker at a rehydration clinic her group set up in Villard, near the center of the outbreak.
In theory, cholera should not be hard to control or to treat -- which is why aid organizations are racing to tell Haitians how to avoid it.
"First of all, drink clean water -- bottled, treated or boiled water," said Abdikadir Hassan, head of the Mercy Corps office in Mirabalais, downriver from the center of the outbreak.
The aid agency is telling people to "wash their hands every time they do something -- go to the toilet, eat. If you have enough water, wash the food before you eat. We're trying to give them soap and water treatments."
Mercy Corps is not waiting for Haitians to come to them for help.
"We put speakers on a van," Hassan said by phone from the town of Mirabalais. "We're going out to the community, we're at the market, we're at the schools."
They don't get to everyone in time.
When Hassan got to the local prison, he found it had 50 cases of cholera, of whom two had already died.
Next he went to the local hospital, where there were 800 cases, of whom 10 have died, he said.
"It started with children and then adults," he said. "In the past few days we have seen more children."
Mirabalais is a textbook case of how shock waves have rippled out from the earthquake since it struck in January.
It's on the central plateau in the center of Haiti, Hassan explained.
"It was not affected by the earthquake, but it received families that were," he said -- about 16,000 people made homeless came to stay with family members in the area.
More than nine months later, about half those people are still there, known officially as internally displaced persons and living with host families and relatives, Hassan said.
"We don't have IDP (internally displaced person) camps where I am," he said
"They are staying in villages, they are staying in towns -- but they are staying in... very small houses with eight or 10 people, houses that normally have four or five people," he said.
Those are exactly the kind of conditions that make it easy for disease to spread, and that's what worries aid workers.
"It would be irresponsible to plan for anything but a considerably wider outbreak," said Nigel Fisher, U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Haiti.Poor, battered and homeless, Haitians face new killer
By Richard Allen Greene, CNN... more
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ST. MARC, Haiti, Oct. 22, 2010
Haiti: Suspected Cholera Outbreak Kills 135
Aid Groups Rush in Supplies as Deadliest Outbreak Since Earthquake Hits Refugees; 1,000 Said to be Infected
Photo: A sick child in central Haiti hooked up to an IV waiting for treatment, Oct. 21, 2010. (Operation Blessing International)
Victims await treatment at a medical facility in St. Marc, northern Haiti, amid an epidemic that has claimed at least 135 lives over the last few days, Oct. 21, 2010. (Getty Images)
(CBS/AP) At least 135 people have died in a suspected cholera outbreak, and aid groups are rushing in medicine and other supplies Friday to combat Haiti's deadliest health problem since its devastating earthquake.
The outbreak in the rural Artibonite region, which hosts thousands of quake refugees, appeared to confirm relief groups' fears about sanitation for homeless survivors living in tarp cities and other squalid settlements.
"We have been afraid of this since the earthquake," said Robin Mahfood, president of Food for the Poor, which was preparing to fly in donations of antibiotics, dehydration salts and other supplies.
Many of the sick have converged on St. Nicholas hospital in the seaside city of St. Marc, where hundreds of dehydrated patients lay on blankets in a parking lot with IVs in their arms as they waited for treatment.
Catherine Huck, deputy country director for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the Caribbean nation's health ministry had recorded 135 deaths and more than 1,000 infected people.
"What we know is that people have diarrhea, and they are vomiting, and (they) can go quickly if they are not seen in time," Huck said. She said doctors were still awaiting lab results to pinpoint the disease.
David Darg, international disaster relief director for Operation Blessing International told CBS News on Thursday it was the worst outbreak of disease he had seen since the earthquake, and many lying outside of the hospital were children.
The president of the Haitian Medical Association, Claude Surena, said the cause appeared to be cholera, but added that had not been confirmed by the government.
"The concern is that it could go from one place to another place, and it could affect more people or move from one region to another one," he said.
Cholera is a waterborne bacterial infection spread through contaminated water. It causes severe diarrhea and vomiting that can lead to dehydration and death within hours. Treatment involves administering a salt and sugar-based rehydration serum.
No cholera outbreaks had been reported in Haiti for decades before the earthquake, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Haitian officials, including President Rene Preval, have been pointing to the lack of severe disease outbreaks as a hard-to-see success of the quake response.
With more than a million people left homeless by the disaster, however, experts have warned that disease could strike in the makeshift camps with nowhere to put human waste and limited access to clean water.
At the hospital, some patients including 70-year-old Belismene Jean Baptiste said they got sick after drinking water from a public canal.
"I ran to the bathroom four times last night vomiting," Jean Baptiste said.
The sick come from across the Artibonite Valley, a starkly desolate region of rice fields and deforested mountains. The area did not experience significant damage in the Jan. 12 quake but has absorbed thousands of refugees from the devastated capital 45 miles south of St. Marc.
Trucks loaded with medical supplies including rehydration salts were to be sent from Port-au-Prince to the hospital, said Jessica DuPlessis, an OCHA spokeswoman. Doctors at the hospital said they also needed more personnel to handle the flood of patients.
Elyneth Tranckil was among dozens of relatives standing outside the hospital gate as new patients arrived near death.
"Police have blocked the entry to the hospital, so I can't get in to see my wife," Tranckil said.
The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince issued an advisory urging people to drink only bottled or boiled water and eat only food that has been thoroughly cooked.ST. MARC, Haiti, Oct. 22, 2010
Haiti: Suspected Cholera Outbreak Kills 135
Aid... more
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Nearly nine months after the earthquake, more than a million Haitians still live on the streets between piles of rubble. One reason: Not a cent of the $1.15 billion the United States promised Haiti for rebuilding has arrived.Nearly nine months after the earthquake, more than a million Haitians still live on... more
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Watch a trailer from the new Docu-Series "Unskrptd". Reel Mckoy Media In Association w/Mad Men Collective will bring you a wide collection of shows that will cover numerous diverse topics including Socio-Economic Issues, Second Chance stories, Grassroots Entrepreneurship, and many more. Through these diverse assortment of shows and features, the Unskrptd series will piece together stories of inspiration and destiny that transcend the globe while still managing to hit the hearts and souls of its viewershipWatch a trailer from the new Docu-Series "Unskrptd". Reel Mckoy Media In... more
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A 9 year-old South Jersey girl wanted to do something to comfort the kids in Haiti after January's earthquake. So with her parents help she created Hugs 4 Haiti and collected stuffed animals to give to the young survivors.A 9 year-old South Jersey girl wanted to do something to comfort the kids in Haiti... more
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remale
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A group of international academics and authors has written to French president Nicolas Sarkozy calling on France to reimburse the crushing "independence debt" it imposed on Haiti nearly 200 years ago. The open letter to the French president says the debt, now worth nearly $21. 7 billion, would cover the rebuilding of the country after a devastating earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people seven months ago.A group of international academics and authors has written to French president Nicolas... more
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