[ad_1]
The sun shone on Stanley Joliva as paramedics at an open-air clinic circled around him, pumping air into his lungs and giving him chest compressions until he died.
Nearby, his mother watched.
“Only God knows my pain,” said Kid Willian.
Less than an hour later, the body of her 22-year-old son lay on the floor, wrapped in a white plastic bag with the date of his death scrawled on it. He joins dozens of Haitians who have died from cholera in a country where fuel, water and other basic supplies are increasingly scarce and cholera is spreading rapidly, straining resources for nonprofits and local hospitals.
At the MSF treatment centre in the capital of Port-au-Prince, where about 100 patients arrive every day, at least 20 people die, with sweat on the foreheads of staff. Families and loved ones have been pouring in this week, sometimes dragging their frail bodies into crowded outdoor clinics, where the smell of waste fills the air.
Dozens of patients sat on white buckets or on stretchers, IV lines extending all the way to rehydration bags that gleamed in the sun. So far this month, MSF has treated about 1,800 patients in four centres in Port-au-Prince.
Across Haiti, many patients are dying because they can’t get to hospitals in time, health officials said. A surge in gang violence has made it unsafe for people to leave communities, and a lack of fuel has shut down public transportation, gas stations and other key businesses including water companies.
Sitting next to her son’s body, Enfant recalled Joliva telling her earlier this week that he wasn’t feeling well. She has warned him and her two other sons not to bathe or wash clothes in sewage that flows through a nearby canyon — the only source of water for hundreds of people in the area.
Enfant insists her sons buy water to wash their clothes and add chlorine if they want to drink it. As Jolliwa’s condition worsened, Enfant tried to care for him on his own.
“I told him, ‘Honey, you need tea,'” she recalled. “He said, ‘I feel weak.’ He also said, ‘I can’t stand up.'”
read more: What we know so far about the man who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband: 5
Cholera is a bacterium that can make people sick who swallow contaminated food or water, and it can cause severe vomiting and diarrhea, and in some cases, death.
The first major cholera infection in Haiti occurred more than a decade ago, when UN peacekeepers introduced the bacteria into the country’s largest river through sewage runoff from their bases. Nearly 10,000 people died and thousands fell ill.
Cases eventually fell to the point where the World Health Organization is expected to declare Haiti cholera-free this year.
But on October 2, Haitian officials announced that cholera had returned.
At least 40 deaths and 1,700 suspected cases have been reported, but officials believe the numbers are much higher, especially in crowded and unsanitary slums and government shelters where thousands of Haitians live.
To make matters worse, the lack of fuel and water began to diminish last month when one of Haiti’s most powerful gangs surrounded a vital fuel terminal and demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henri. Gas stations and businesses including water companies have closed, forcing more and more people to rely on untreated water.
Shela Jeune, a 21-year-old hot dog vendor whose 2-year-old son has cholera, said she bought sachets of water for her family but did not know if they were treated. She took him to the hospital, where he is still receiving IV fluids.
“Everything I give him to eat, he throws it away,” she said.
On a recent morning, Jeune was one of dozens of mothers seeking treatment for their children.
Lauriol Chantal, 43, tells a similar story. Her 15-year-old son vomited as soon as he finished eating, prompting her to rush him to a treatment center.
At the center, her son Alessandro Francois told her he was feeling hot.
“He said to me… ‘Mom, can you take me out to wash me or pour water on my head?'” she said.
She agreed, but suddenly, he fell into her arms. The staff ran over to help.
Children under the age of 14 account for half of cholera cases in Haiti, according to UNICEF, and officials have warned that rising cases of severe malnutrition also make children more vulnerable to the disease.
Poverty in Haiti also exacerbates the situation.
“When you don’t have access to safe drinking water at home through the tap, when you don’t have soap or water purification tablets and you don’t have access to medical care, you may not survive cholera or other water-borne diseases,” said Bruno. UN Children Haiti The foundation represents Mace.
Grandmother Perpety Juste, 62, said one of her three grandchildren fell ill this week because she feared their condition could make her sick.
“We haven’t eaten in days and I can’t lie,” she said. “No one in my family has a job.”
Juste, who lives with her husband, five children and three grandchildren, said she worked as a house cleaner before the homeowners fled Haiti.
The growing need for help is squeezing MSF and others as they struggle to care for patients with limited fuel.
“It’s a nightmare for the people and for us,” said Jean-Marc Biquet, the group’s program coordinator. “We still have two weeks of fuel.”
The lives of many Haitians were paralyzed, including Enfant, as she mourned the death of her son. She wanted to bury him in her southern coastal hometown of Les Cayes, but couldn’t afford the 55,000 gourdes ($430) needed to transport his body.
Enfant then quieted down and stared into the distance as she continued to sit next to her son’s body – too shocked to get up, she said.
___
Associated Press writer Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link