Haiti

As Haiti’s prime minister, the UN Secretary General, representatives from more than 30 donor countries, and multilateral agencies convene tomorrow in Washington, D.C., to fund strategies for Haiti’s future economic and social development, they must not neglect the country’s immediate public health crisis. MSF calls on the Haitian government and international donors to immediately implement concrete measures to improve access to health care for the Haitian population.

Port-au-Prince/Paris/Amsterdam/Brussels/New York, April 13, 2009 – As Haiti’s prime minister, the UN Secretary General, representatives from more than 30 donor countries, and multilateral agencies convene tomorrow in Washington, D.C., to fund strategies for Haiti’s future economic and social development, they must not neglect the country’s immediate public health crisis, said the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). MSF calls on the Haitian government and international donors to immediately implement concrete measures to improve access to health care for the Haitian population.

Located on one of the busiest street corners of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the 75-bed Jude Anne Hospital has been operating well beyond its capacity since Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) opened the facilities in March of 2006.

MSF's assessments of Haiti's nutritional situation have revealed small pockets of malnourished children, consistent with levels of chronic undernutrition found in the country before the recent hurricanes. However, none have shown high levels of malnutrition requiring a major scale-up of MSF’s nutritional programs.

MSF medical teams are currently assessing the nutritional situation in several areas of the country. Since November 4, MSF medical doctors have been screening children in the mountain area of Baie d'Orange and Belle Anse, where authorities had reported children dead because of malnutrition in the previous weeks.

Between August 16 and September 1, Haiti was ravaged by Tropical Storm Fay, Hurricane Gustav, Tropical Storm Hanna, and Hurricane Ike. On September 4, a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) emergency team of medical staff, logisticians, and water and sanitation experts began arriving in the northwestern city of Gonaïves, which had been particularly hard-hit.

MSF teams in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, are providing emergency care and treatment to people injured in the collapse of La Promesse School in the Petionville neighborhood of the city earlier today.

Port-au-Prince, November 6, 2008 – Over the last month, hundreds of women have desperately sought emergency obstetric care at Jude-Anne hospital in Port-au-Prince. In October, hospital staff assisted a record high of 56 women giving birth in one day and received 160 women waiting for hospitalization. The hospital has been so overwhelmed by demand that mothers have given birth in the hospital’s waiting room, the staircases, and in the washrooms, essentially anywhere they could find space. For this 60-bed emergency hospital (including five delivery beds), with an average rate of 35 births per day, this is an untenable situation.

For several weeks, MSF helped support the Rabouteau Health Center in Gonaives. It reopened a hospital in another part of town while also organizing water distribution. MSF continues to witness difficult situations and documents the stories of some of the people still forgotten weeks after the last storm.

Port-au-Prince/New York, October 3, 2008 — A month after the last tropical storms and hurricanes hit Haiti, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical teams have found a whole village completely submerged and its 2,400 remaining inhabitants stranded with no help.

With the floodwater now fully receded in storm-ravaged Gonaïves, the streets are covered in mud and garbage. People are living in harsh, dirty conditions without widespread access to clean water.

"At the latest estimate, there were something like 60,000 people living without a house. All the bridges have collapsed around the town, and the roads are still impassable. Inside the town itself you can drive to some places, but to get to the town from outside is impossible—even big vehicles with caterpillar tracks can't get through."

While flood waters in Gonaives have mostly receded, some parts of the devastated town remain inaccessible and many people have not had access to healthcare, clean water, and food for 15 days. An MSF team continues to support the Rabouteau Health Center in Gonaives, where more than 1,000 consultations have been carried out to date.

Lionel, a 22-year-old carpenter, was at home on September 1 with his wife, who was seven months pregnant, in the Brale area in Gonaïves, Haiti. At about 11 p.m., the water started rising. As it began to spread under the bed, they knew they had to move. Within two hours, the water was four meters above ground level.

Fourteen days after Tropical Storm Gustav made landfall, followed by Tropical Storm Hanna and then Hurricane Ike last week, many areas are still inaccessible in devastated Haiti.

Max Cosci, MSF head of mission in Haiti, describes the situation on the ground in Gonaïves after Haiti was hit by Hurricane Gustav, Tropical Storm Hanna, and Hurricane Ike.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is responding the humanitarian needs brought about by a series of hurricanes and tropical that have struck Haiti. According to authorities, 25,000 to 30,000 houses were destroyed and up to 500 people have died nationwide. People have very little access to food and clean water, and major crops have been destroyed.

As an eerie calm settled on the center of Port-au-Prince on April 10, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are continuing to receive patients suffering from trauma injuries, especially in the Martissant and Carrefour neighborhoods of the city.

Since April 7, 2008, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams have treated more than 31 wounded patients, including 15 people with gunshot wounds, in MSF-operated hospitals in the Haitian capital city, Port-au-Prince. Most of the patients were wounded when demonstrators in the city protested against rapidly increasing living costs, especially sharp increases in the price of basic food items.

An interview with Olivia Gayraud, a French emergency nurse, who helped open the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) 56-bed emergency medical and surgical program at St. Joseph's Hospital in Port-au-Prince in October 2004. In March 2007, she became head of mission at the project, which now inlcudes a program to treat victims of sexual violence with medical and mental health care.

Renewed clashes in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince involving various armed groups —including United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah) forces— has brought an abrupt end to the short respite from violence in the city since elections in February. In July 2006, MSF treated more than 200 gunshot victims at three medical facilities in Port-au-Prince: St. Joseph's trauma center in the Turgeau neighborhood, St. Catherine hospital in Cité Soleil, and Jude Anne Hospital in the Delmas area. This represents a 110 percent increase from gunshot-related admissions in June.

The women of Haiti suffer from the highest maternal mortality rate in the Western hemisphere. Approximately 523 women die for every 100,000 who give birth. (In United States, 12 women die during the same number of births). To help prevent these deaths, MSF has started providing free, emergency care to women with high-risk pregnancies in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The intense, escalating violence endured by people throughout Port-au-Prince from November 2005 to January 2006 was suddenly replaced by a fragile quiet in the days leading up to Haiti's presidential elections.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 19 January 2006 - With violent attacks intensifying and spreading to many parts of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today called on all armed groups in the city to respect the safety of civilians and allow those wounded during clashes to have immediate access to emergency medical care. The organization also called for the safety of national and international aid workers to be respected.

Until August 2005, 30-year old Renilde Kanyange was the supervising operating nurse for MSF's program providing emergency surgical care in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. Originally from Bujumbura, Burundi, she helped open the trauma center in December 2004.

Port au Prince/New York, July 5, 2005 – As violent attacks intensify and spread in Haiti's capital Port au Prince, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today called on all armed groups in the city to respect the safety of civilians and allow those wounded during clashes immediate access to emergency medical care.

Pierre Salignon, General Director of MSF in France, recently returned from a visit to Haiti. He describes the extreme violence reigning in Port au Prince's poorest neighborhoods and how the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah)–far from restoring calm–has been drawn into a war against supporters of former President Aristide.

One bullet came to rest under Charles'* left jaw after ripping through the right side of his neck. Another bullet shot through Robert's chest and lodged in his ribcage next to his aorta. Yet another tore into 9-year-old Pierre's leg, exploded in fragments and broke his femur in two.

Dr. Jean-Paul Dixmeras, a surgeon from Paris and a member of the Board of Directors for the French section of MSF, recently returned from providing emergency surgical care in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

Doctor Gabriel Salazar, an experienced MD with nearly 11 years' experience with MSF, flew directly from Colombia to Haiti last September when the country was devastated by tropical storm Jeanne.

More than a month after floods killed thousands and left nearly 200,000 people homeless in Haiti's city of Gonaives, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical teams are now performing over 900 consultations each day.

In response to the severe flooding that has hit the Haitian city of Gonaives, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has begun treating people at a newly opened health center in Raboteau, a slum in the western part of the city.

Port-au-Prince, September 22, 2004 - Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has mobilized to assist people overwhelmed by severe flooding in the city of Gonaives, on Haiti's northwest coast.

Following heavy rainfalls last Sunday, villages in the border region between Haiti and the Dominican Republic were inundated. The heaviest flooding occurred early Monday morning, surprising people in their sleep. Many did not have the chance to escape.

Forty-year-old Dr. Albert Tshiula headed MSF's Emergency Response Team in DR Congo after several years as a national staff physician. He has been field coordinator for the MSF program in St. Marc, Haiti.

Port-au-Prince/New York, March 8, 2004 - Following Sunday afternoon's shooting incident during a demonstration near the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, people wounded in the crossfire were brought to hospitals throughout the capital city. At Saint-François de Salle Hospital, in the center of the city, an MSF team provided free medical care to the incoming wounded.

MSF re-launched its emergency response program in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince after widespread reports of killings and lootings limited MSF's ability to get to Saint François de Salle Hospital safely over the weekend.

Port-au-Prince / New York, February 13, 2004 - Today, the international medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is sending 16 tons of medical equipment to Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. The supplies consist primarily of surgical and dressing kits for the MSF programs in the hospital of Saint Nicolas, in Saint-Marc, and Saint François de Salle Hospital, in Port-au-Prince. The MSF medical emergency program aims to ensure access to treatment for the people wounded during the massive demonstrations and other violent incidents that have been occurring almost daily since December 2003.