New report highlights unnecessary sickness and death from cholera in Haiti

A newly released report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) cites the international community’s failure to adequately address cholera treatment and prevention efforts in Haiti. In fact, Not Doing Enough: Unnecessary Sickness and Death from Cholera in Haiti finds that many NGOs and international organizations stopped providing cholera-related services just as the rainy season set in at the beginning of this summer. Of the 128 aid organizations responding to the outbreak in January 2011, only 48 were still treating patients at the end of July.

In July 2011, PIH/ZL treated over 12,000 patients at 15 cholera treatment centers and units.

Since its appearance in Haiti in October 2010, this preventable and easily curable disease has sickened roughly 420,000 people, killing more than 6,000. These startling statistics make it “the most catastrophic epidemic the hemisphere has seen in decades.”

Still, the $175 million UN cholera funding appeal remains underfunded, and resources for building water infrastructure, expanding cholera treatment centers, and scaling up antibiotic, supplement and vaccination efforts remain insufficient. The CEPR report argues that the international community should redouble efforts to combat cholera.

Read the Center for Economic and Policy Research’s new report.