Cholera cases increase in Haiti
Cholera has tightened its grip on new regions of Haiti this week. The seasonal rains have brought steady flows of groundwater, providing a damp and muddy breeding ground for the bacteria.
The Samaritan's Purse medical team has been anticipating a spike in cholera cases, but was unsure of its severity. This week, we received our answer.
Our cholera treatment facility began receiving frantic calls from hospitals in neighboring communities that were overwhelmed with the amount of sick that were showing up at their doors. Many organizations have left, assuming the peak had passed, and Samaritan's Purse is one of the few organizations still caring for the sick.
I visited an overrun facility and saw the volume of people waiting outside and occupying every open space. It was similar to the first days of cholera last October. Over 400 people were admitted here. Every bed was taken and some were lying on the floor, unable to sit up because the sickness was taking over their bodies. IV bags hung wherever they could be supported.
The Samaritan's Purse cholera center in Cite Soleil mobilized quickly to begin receiving transfers on tap taps and ambulances. By afternoon our triage tent was completely full. Our volunteer work crew came out to help hang IV boards and build another triage tent to handle the load. Nearly 100 were taken in and cared for yesterday.
The capacity building activities that Samaritan's Purse focused on the first part of this year allowed our Haitian doctors and nurses to become highly trained and thus, able to quickly respond. They are working alongside our volunteer medical team that came from North America and the United Kingdom-some of who came straight from the airport and into the clinic to begin working as numbers climbed in the afternoon and evening.
Yesterday, Denis came in with her son Jevenson. I found them embracing.
"This is the first time I saw cholera," Denis said. "I've heard about in on the radio, I've seen it on billboards. But we didn't see it in the tent community I live in. Yesterday, my baby started having diarrhea. He is teething, so I thought maybe it was because of that. But it didn't stop. And it got worse and I became very scared. It hit quickly. Now many of us are here."
This morning, we have 250 patients on IVs and are nearing our maximum capacity. We are working swiftly to admit, treat, and heal. God's presence is drawing us together as we go from bed to bed and care for the sick in unison, each person trained in their task. He has prepared us for this time.
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