Life
Haiti: Anti cholera vaccination campaign launched
The Haitian health minister, Florence Duperval Guillaume, rejected allegations that the vaccine is experimental and could have side effects. The vaccination program was delayed several weeks after some critics suggested the campaign was a research project to test new, unapproved drugs.
“This is vaccine that has already been certified by the WHO, and our campaign has nothing to do with an experimentation that could have recipients running risks,” Guillaume said. “People have nothing to fear,” she added.
Cholera is an infection that causes severe diarrhea that can lead to dehydration and death. It occurs in places with poor sanitation and can be treated by drinking clean fluids.
The number of cases has increased slightly in Haiti over the past few weeks, with frequent torrential rains spreading the bacteria in several areas where health official had brought the disease under control.
The Western Hemisphere’s only cholera epidemic has infected nearly 550,000 and killed 7,400 people in Haiti and the neighboring Dominican Republic since October 2010 – with nearly all of the deaths in Haiti, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.
Cases of cholera first emerged in central Haiti’s Artibonite River region, possibly as a result of poor sanitary conditions at a U.N. base of peacekeepers from Nepal, where cholera is endemic. Haiti previously had no cases of cholera in recorded history.
Health workers continue to see 100-200 new cases per day, but that is far lower than then the 1,000 new cases a day they were seeing this time a year ago, said Dr. John Vertefeuille, the CDC country director in Haiti.
