The first doses of cholera vaccine arrived in Haiti on Monday and the vaccination campaign will begin in the coming days to try to stem the growing number of cases in the country, which is plagued by a security, economic and health crisis, indicates the UN on Tuesday.
“With the support of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Haiti received today (Monday) approximately 1.17 million doses of oral cholera vaccines as cases continue to rise in the country”underlines the OPS in a press release.
Some 500,000 additional doses must be delivered “in the next weeks”.
The vaccine (Evichol) was provided by the International Vaccine Supply Coordination Group (IGC), which manages the global stock of cholera vaccines, following a request from the Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population. (MSPP), specifies the organization.
The vaccination campaign will focus first of all on the most affected parts of the country (Cite Soleil, Delmas, Tabarre, Carrefour and Port-au-Prince as well as Mirabelais) and concerns residents over the age of one.
Cholera has spread rapidly across Haiti over the past few weeks. To date, the National Department of Epidemiology, Laboratories and Research (DELR) reports 1,220 confirmed cases and more than 280 deaths from cholera in eight departments, with more than 14,100 suspected cases distributed in the 10 departments of the country, underlines the press release.
In mid-November, the UN launched an appeal to raise $145.6 million to deal with the epidemic.
But in a country ravaged by gang violence, the humanitarian needs go beyond the sole question of this resurgence of cholera, which killed more than 10,000 people between 2010 and 2019.
Thus, while one in two Haitians does not have enough to eat, the UN is preparing a humanitarian plan for 2023 valued at $719 million, almost twice as much as for 2022.