Haiti: 2,000 health workers to receive cholera training
Posted on Jul 7, 2011
On July 1, the first of more than 2,000 new cholera training manuals were delivered by PIH/ZL to community health workers (CHWs) in Haiti.
The Community Health Worker Cholera Training Manual – written to help CHWs and hygiene agents working throughout Haiti to combat, identify and treat cholera – draws from lessons learned in the nine months since the outbreak began. The first version was drafted and implemented within one day of the outbreak and allowed trainings for physicians, nurses, and cleaning staff to begin within the first two weeks.
The new manual, funded in part by the World Bank, is a formalized version that is approved by Haiti’s Ministry of Health (MSPP) to train CHWs to deal with the endemic nationwide. About 150 manuals were transported to Haiti this week in suitcases, and 2,000 more will be shipped by the end of July. The new manuals and flip books will reach Haiti at a crucial time, as the rainy season has caused cholera cases to spike to levels seen in the first weeks of the outbreak.
The materials will be used to train more than 2,000 CHWs, and a modified program will be used to train a similar amount of hygiene agents in cholera and sanitation techniques. PIH/ZL will hold trainings for dozens of new trainers, and the curriculum will be made available to CHWs from other organizations in the Central Plateau, Artibonite and Port-au-Prince to create a wide coverage area of treatment and prevention.
