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Category: Disasters and Accidents / Health / International Aid and Trade / Diseases and Disorders

UN fears more cholera in Haiti after Hurricane Matthew

Wednesday, 19 Oct 2016 13:34:16

Security closes the gate on people trying to access a food distribution yard. (AP: Rebecca Blackwell)

The scale of a cholera outbreak in Haiti after Hurricane Matthew may be underreported because remote areas are cut off, a United Nations official in charge of controlling the disease has said.

Key points:

The UN is calling for extra funding to fight the cholera outbreak
Anger over aid distribution has led to disruption, looting
Cholera was initially introduced to Haiti by UN peacekeepers in 2010

There are also concerns protests over slow aid are making the problem worse.

David Nabarro, a special advisor to the UN Secretary-General who was previously in charge of the global body's response to the water-borne disease, said he was worried sick people were not being treated.

He called on donor nations to fund the UN response to the outbreak, a sensitive topic in Haiti because the disease was accidentally introduced to the Caribbean country by UN peacekeepers and has since killed more than 9,000 people.

Some roads in south-western Haiti remain impassable after this month's storm and rising anger about the slow pace and uneven distribution of aid have led desperate people to barricade roads, and, at times, loot humanitarian convoys.

"We don't know if there are many people with the problem of cholera in the areas that we cannot access and that is why I ask the people, let us access everywhere," Mr Nabarro said.

"We fear that there are people in caves, in other places, without help and they are perhaps sick."

A teenager was shot in the chest on Tuesday when Haitian police used firearms against a group trying to loot a truck in Les Cayes, a centre for aid distribution in the south-west, regional police chief Luc Pierre said.

At the weekend, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon witnessed the looting of a food aid container during a brief visit to Les Cayes.

The office of interim President Jocelerme Privert on Tuesday alleged supplies where being appropriated to be handed out in a "political or partisan manner".

A boy falls to the ground with a looted bag of donated goods, as men snatch other bags from a truck in Haiti, October 16 2016.

Photo: A boy falls to the ground with a looted donations bag, as men snatch more from the back of a moving truck in Les Cayes. (AP: Rebecca Blackwell)

UN appeal receives only $US15 million for aid

Haiti's cholera epidemic began in 2010, when Nepalese peacekeepers poured infected sewage in a river shortly after a devastating magnitude-7.0 earthquake.

The disease has now flared in some hurricane-affected areas, mostly in the south-west of the country, as floods contaminated drinking water after the category 4 storm.

Mr Nabarro said the UN had received just $US15 million of $US120 million it asked for in an appeal after the hurricane, further straining relief efforts in Haiti.

He did not say how much of that funding had been allocated to the cholera response, but said he would encourage donors to step up funding when he returned to New York.

"It is difficult to have a good UN response … if we don't have enough money," Mr Nabarro said.

The UN is soon launching a new plan intended to improve cholera response and water and sanitation infrastructure in Haiti, and to provide material assistance to victims.

The World Health Organisation said last week it was sending 1 million cholera vaccines to Haiti.