Reports distort truth about cholera in Haiti

Cholera has spread through the 10 departments of Haiti since Oct. 16 when the first case was confirmed. By Dec. 7 the disease had killed at least 2,100 people and infected more than 92,000. Many experts say these estimates undercount the isolated and extremely poor areas of rural Haiti.

Cholera spreads through human fecal matter in water or on food. A number of reports from Haiti, video from Al Jazeera and pictures on various web sites bear out the contention that most Haitians do not have access to clean water. There is no sewage treatment plant in all of Haiti. (Huffington Post, Dec. 1)

This cholera strain, which had not existed before in Haiti, is particularly virulent. Unless people are treated immediately, some will die within two hours after showing symptoms and everyone else within a day. Treatment generally includes rehydration, needed to replace body fluids lost through explosive diarrhea, and antibiotics to control the disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

The death rate and infection rate in Haiti are much higher than they were during the last major outbreak of cholera in the Western Hemisphere, in Peru in the early 1990s.

There is a major controversy over the origins of this epidemic. Almost all Haitians believe the U.N. troops, called the Minustah, occupying their country since 2004, brought the disease to Mirebelais in central Haiti. The U.N. had vehemently denied responsibility, but U.N. head Ban Ki Moon announced a commission in mid-December to investigate how it happened. (Associated Press, Dec. 16)

Blaming the victims

Outrageously, some of the big-business media, the Red Cross and certain sections of the U.S. government have invented a new way of blaming the victims for the crime — blaming Haitians for the cholera epidemic. They say it will take additional funds to train Haitians in cleanliness.

The New York Times in a Dec. 18 editorial wrote: “The disease is relatively easy to treat, given adequate supplies of fresh water and prompt medical attention — two things most Haitians lack. Haitians,” the Times spit out, “also need more education in preventive hygiene.”

The U.S. State Department in a Dec. 6 press conference said: “On the prevention side, we’re mobilizing to train health workers and increase public awareness campaigns so that the Haitian population understands the importance of health hygiene, of drinking clean water” — as if Haitians didn’t know this.

The Red Cross reported that it “is engaged on multiple levels — from leading cholera prevention activities in camps such as hygiene promotion to educate thousands of Haitian earthquake survivors.” Its press release went on about how Red Cross personnel went tent to tent “to personally teach vulnerable Haitians about basic hygiene practices.” (redcross.org)

The Centers for Disease Control, a unit of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is tasked with providing accurate information about diseases and their causes to both medical professionals and the general public, reported on Dec. 7: “In 2008, only 63 percent of Haiti’s population had access to an improved drinking water source, and only 17 percent had access to adequate sanitation.” For the CDC “improved drinking water” is any water not scooped up from a river and “adequate sanitation” is a latrine or outhouse.

After the earthquake, whatever water supply or sanitation in Port-au-Prince and its surrounds — for over 2.5 million people — fell completely apart. If you don’t have soap, clean water to drink and wash with, and reasonably clean sanitary facilities, all the education that is spewed out by the U.S. State Department, the Red Cross and so on won’t help.

Cuba, which has had a significant aid mission in Haiti for years, decided to reinforce it after the cholera epidemic began.

In the Dec. 7 Granma, Fidel Castro wrote, “In spite of the sudden way in which cholera appeared in the small, but excellent hospital in the service of Haiti, only 13 of the first 2,822 sick persons died, giving a mortality rate of 0.5 percent; subsequently, when the Cholera Treatment Center was set up in a remote area, out of 3,459 patients, five in a serious condition died, giving 0.1 percent.

“[As of] Tuesday, Dec. 7, ... among those treated by the Cuban Mission the mortality rate rose to 0.83 percent. The mortality rate in other hospital institutions stands at 3.2 percent. With the experience acquired, appropriate measures and the reinforcement of the Henry Reeve Brigade, the Cuban Medical Mission, with the support of the Haitian authorities, has offered a presence in many of the isolated 207 sub-communes, so that no Haitian citizen lacks medical attention in the face of the epidemic, and many thousands of lives can be saved.”

The Harry Reeve Brigade is Cuba medical emergency response team.