Problem Definition: There have been 469.967 reported cases of cholera in Haiti between January 2010 and October 2011, resulting in 6,595 deaths.
This blog discusses the key determinants of the cholera epidemic in Haiti. All of the determinants that I’m discussing are inter-related and are difficult to separate. The determinants I will be looking at are biological, environmental and social/economic. A person’s social/economic status affects their environmental surroundings.
According to the WHO “cholera is an acute enteric infection caused by the ingestion of bacterium Vibrio cholera present in faecally contaminated water or food”. Environmental conditions allow the spread of cholera through biological determinants (faecally contaminated water or food).
Living Conditions: An estimated 634,000 people in Haiti lived in slums or displacement camps during 2010/2011. Needless to say, the slums and displacement camps were not great living conditions with cramped living spaces and had poor sanitation. People in these camps were poor, lacked food and water. Their social/economic status affected their environmental surroundings.
Lowered Immunity: Overcrowded living conditions allow diseases to spread quickly and easily. All of the illnesses that the people’s immune systems were battling lead to generally lowered immune system effectiveness. Unfortunately people with lower immunity are not only more likely to be infected with cholera but they are also more likely to die from it.
Food Hygiene: UN officials estimated that 2 million people needed food supplies on a regular basis. Though food hygiene is very important, given the shortage of food, the main priority was getting food to the population. People are also more willing to eat food that may not be ‘safe’ if they are hungry. The combination of these two can result in food falling on the ground and still being consumed, not cooking food properly, etc. Food could have easily been contaminated with faecal matter further allowing the spread of cholera.
Water Sanitation: Some people – particularly those of low economic status –relied on rivers for water supply, as they were without plumbing. Not only did they do their laundry in rivers, they bathed, brushed their teeth and drank from the river. They were at risk to any contaminants dumped in the river upstream. Due to the destruction of infrastructure during the earthquake, sanitation became even poorer. Even the United Nations peacekeeping base in Meille had “significant potential for cross-contamination’ between toilets and showers”. Furthermore the UN base contaminated the Latem River. Yet the UN’s sanitation system would have been at a higher structural caliber than the general populations’. As you can imagine, if the UN base is contaminating the water than contamination from others would have been much worse. The poor water sanitation allowed the cholera to spread.
Sources:
WHO, (2012). Prevention and control of cholera outbreaks: WHO policy and recommendations. Retrieved from website: http://www.who.int/cholera/technical/prevention/control/en/index.html
2 weeks after haiti quake, food aid falls short. (2010, January 27). The Associated Press. Retrieved from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35109377/ns/world_news-haiti/t/weeks-after-haiti-quake-food-aid-falls-short/
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