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Haiti Cholera epidemic response

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No longer an epidemic, cholera cases continue to appear at Samaritan’s Purse clinics. As the cholera crisis lessens, medical staff and volunteers treat the deadly disease, along with malaria, pneumonia, asthma, chronic high blood pressure, and other ailments for hundreds of clinic patients each day. Communications Manager Jeff Adams was in Haiti during the worst of the cholera epidemic, and wrote this report. 

I stood teary-eyed, on the fringe of one of the Western Hemisphere’s largest slums, as volunteer Samaritan’s Purse doctors and nurses helped an eight-year-old girl battle fiercely for her life.

Lolita was so weak and dehydrated from a night of vomiting and diarrhea that when she arrived early one morning at Samaritan’s Purse’s 200-bed cholera treatment centre at Cite Soleil, after being carried 25 kilometres by her two cousins, medical staff estimated she was only 20 minutes from death.

They couldn’t even detect her pulse.

“She’s almost gone,” said Isla Ghent, a retired Toronto nurse among 349 Christian medical staff (80 of them Canadian) who volunteered at Samaritan’s Purse’s two Haiti cholera treatment centres.

Ghent and another nurse quickly began replenishing Lolita’s fluids by inserting an intravenous line in each arm. This double-barrelled tactic usually revives seriously ill cholera patients very quickly. They recover consciousness within a few minutes and are sitting up and talking within two or three hours.

“We call it the Lazarus effect,” said a smiling Debi Lammert, a nurse practitioner from Tulsa, Oklahoma, referring to Jesus Christ raising Lazarus from the dead in John 11:1-43.

But after more than three hours on a cot in the treatment centre’s admitting area, Lolita was still drifting in and out of consciousness. Looking into her eyes when they occasionally opened, I saw only a vacant stare. I joined the Christian medical specialists in surrounding Lolita’s cot and praying for her survival.

We knew how easy it is to misjudge the speed with which cholera can kill. The vomiting and diarrhea are so intense that four litres of fluids can drain from an adult male per hour, leaving him so dehydrated and weak that death can occur in an afternoon. Children like Lolita are even more vulnerable.

Eventually, as more patients arrived at the centre, we moved Lolita into the pediatrics area. A burly Haitian porter carried the little girl in his arms, while I trailed behind, holding up the intravenous bags.

The relocation did nothing to energize Lolita. The slim child was still unconscious – waking barely long enough to vomit on several occasions. But after the day shift of medical volunteers left and the night shift took over, Lolita gradually fought her way back – at first opening her eyes and occasionally focusing on those around her, then managing a weak smile, and finally mumbling a word or two. By the next morning, Lolita was gamely saying “I’m fine” in French in response to questions from nurses.

It will still be several more days before Lolita has recovered enough strength to return home.

If only Haiti itself could rebound that quickly.

It will take decades of concerted effort – by various governments and by many non-government organizations including Samaritan’s Purse – to enable Haiti to rebound from the 7.0-magnitude earthquake on January 12, 2010 that killed at least 230,000 people and left 1.6 million homeless.

Many would argue the situation is hopeless – thanks to a succession of inept and/or corrupt governments here, and to the lack of an integrated long-term international effort to rebuild.

But at Samaritan’s Purse, knowing our Lord can do anything, we remain hopeful. After all, the cholera epidemic is waning. There will continue to be cholera cases in Haiti for years to come, but there are good reasons to believe they won’t occur again in the volumes that occurred during the rainy season of 2010.

Preventative measures by Samaritan’s Purse and other organizations – teaching Haitians to build and use latrines, to regularly wash their hands, and to seek help quickly when they begin experiencing severe vomiting, diarrhea and muscle cramps – are paying off.

Haiti’s Ministry of Health and Population says about 3,650 Haitians have died from cholera since the first cases were diagnosed in October of 2010. But the number of deaths has slowed significantly, and more than 171,000 other people have been treated at various facilities and released.

Many of the treatment facilities throughout Haiti, where 10 million residents live in an area four-fifths the size of Vancouver Island, are operated by non-government organizations. Some rely entirely on paid staff. But others, including Samaritan’s Purse, rely heavily on volunteers who have decided to take a week or two off work to help here – including, in many cases, paying their own way here and home.

Why come to the poorest nation in the Western world, only a short drive from where tens of thousands of earthquake victims are buried in mass graves, to work 12-hour days in brutal 35C-40C heat when they could be enjoying a winter vacation at some tropical resort – possibly even on the other side of the island in the Dominican Republic?

Because the Bible calls Christians to action – saying, for example, in the book of James: “What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? . . . faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.”

The task in Haiti can be overwhelming. The French-speaking nation was desperately poor even before the earthquake. Half the population was illiterate, only 40 per cent had basic health care access, and 90 per cent of children were trying to survive while fighting waterborne diseases and intestinal parasites.

Then the earth began to shake – destroying so many houses, schools, government buildings, stores, and factories that one out of every six Haitians is homeless, and six out of every seven are unemployed.

Samaritan’s Purse can’t solve all of Haiti’s problems. But we’ll continue to aggressively tackle a few, including medical care and housing. We’ll keep offering cholera treatment and prevention, while also operating clinics (including mobile versions) to address some of Haitians’ other medical needs. We also completed the construction of 15,000 shelters that serve as semi-permanent housing for entire communities of displaced or homeless people.

The late Bob Pierce, Samaritan’s Purse’s founder, said although human beings can never help all of the world’s poor, we can always help at least a few – “and it’s the few for which we must someday give an account to God.”

Ways You Can Help
Pray Praise God for the medication and capable volunteers who were able to assist in Haiti during the worst of the cholera epidemic. Pray that God would continue to protect those in Haiti who are vulnerable to cholera and other dangerous diseases.		Give Samaritan's Purse is continuing to help meet needs in Haiti. Your gift can help support clean water initiatives, training for women, medical clinics, and other essential needs. Donate Here.