Update on Project

By the sounds of it, the health campaign in Pestel is going great!    The health workers have already reached over 2800 kids in the first 3 weeks!   Sister Fidelis has been out-and-about, taking lots of photos of the workers in action, so I'm anxious to see those.  I will send some along when I get them!

The workers are finding a lot of malnutrition, and we'll be able to report exact numbers from their data.  Also, the deworming (anti-parasite) medication is a big hit!  The parents are thrilled to see the dead worms after the medication is given!  One kid had about 60 worms!

And another kid had over 100 worms (they counted them!).   

 

This is going to lead to BIG improvements in their growth and health.   We'll measure the kids again later this year to see what kind of growth improvements occurred as a result of this.  We received the donations from a very generous organization called Vitamin Angels.  They have been fantastic to work with and I'd encourage you to support their work.  For places like Pestel these kinds of programs accomplish a great deal for very little money, as you know.  You can imagine that the villages are likely to be even more receptive to the campaign when we run it again at the end of this year because of how these seen the tangible results of the medication working.  That'll allow us to build on this success and make strides in educational initiatives, for example.  

We're also exploring a potential arrangement with a group that works in Haiti called Medika Mamba.  They are graciously providing us with a $500 donation of "RUTF" = ready-to-use-therapeutic foods.  RUTFs are the mainstay of therapy for severe malnutrition.  They have a program to rehab severely malnourished children back to health.  The challenge after that will be keeping them out of malnutrition, so if you have thoughts or want to help with that planning, let me know.  

I'll plan to pick up the donation in Port-au-Prince on my next trip, and then Sister Fidelis will be piloting the project with one of her nurses.  If we find that the program is successful, and if we can come up with a sustainable way to keep it going, we very well may embark on one of the most pressing and important campaigns for Pestel--malnutrition.

To put modern medicine in a bit of perspective, antibiotics will do very little good in a child with severe malnutrition.  Antibiotics help the body fight infection.  The key here is that the medications help the body.  The body must still ultimately kill the remaining infection.  

Be encouraged!  God has done and is going to do great things in Pestel!    He is mighty and powerful, and I just love that He finds it good to reveal His power and might in these ways.

Ben
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My Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/

Haiti Video--latest edit

Hi all,

I made some more changes to the video, especially adding some text.   My department chair would like me to show this to the Family & Community Medicine Department meeting next week (about 60 docs)!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKmH621f_-Y

Ben

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My Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/

New video from recent Haiti trip

This is a video from our recent Haiti trip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghvdyQkVQeo

Ben
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My Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/

News item

"FEW EVENTS OF SUCH FEROCITY"

According to a February study by the Inter-American Development Bank, the cost of physical damage from Haiti's earthquake ranges from $8 billion to $13 billion. It says, "there are few events of such ferocity as the Haiti 2010 earthquake."

The study looks at natural disasters over the past 40 years and concludes that the death toll, per capita, of Haiti's earthquake is four times, or more, higher than any other disaster in this time period. Nearly 24,000 people per million of Haiti's population died. (The total estimated death toll is well over 200,000). The closest equivalent is 4,000 per million, in the 1972 earthquake that struck Nicaragua.

The Partners In Health agency estimates some 1.3 million people were left without shelter by the earthquake. The majority of those people still do not have adequate emergency shelter nor access to potable water, food and medical attention.

According to US AID, there are approximately 600,000 displaced people living in 416 makeshift camps in Port-au-Prince. Sanitation conditions in the camps remain a grave concern. With heavy seasonal rains fast approaching, the population is extremely vulnerable to exposure and water-born disease.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an alert on March 4 about another deadly danger that lurks: malaria. It said, "Displaced persons living outdoors or in temporary shelters and thousands of emergency responders in Haiti are at substantial risk for malaria.Each year, Haiti has 30,000 confirmed cases of malaria. Officials believe the actual number is closer to 200,000.

Partners In Health says it has established clinics in five of the makeshift settlement in Port au Prince, serving some 80,000 to 100,000 people.

A "BROADLY INSUFFICIENT" RELIEF EFFORT

Two leading directors of Doctors Without Borders have called the relief effort to date "broadly insufficient." In a March 5 interview, they say that, "The lack of shelter and the hygiene conditions represent a danger not only in terms of public health, but they are also an intolerable breach of the human dignity of all these people."

They call conditions in the makeshift refugee camps where many survivors still struggle to survive "shocking" and "shameful."

Partners In Health voiced similar concerns in a March 5 press release and conference call. They called on governments and NGOs to do a better job addressing the "inhumane and rapidly deteriorating conditions on the ground in Haiti."

PIH Executive Director Ophelia Dahl, recently returned from Haiti, told the conference call, "We witnessed hundreds of thousands of people living in makeshift temporary shelters; spontaneous settlements made of scraps of cardboard and plastic bags. What little people have is soaked, because they're sleeping in the rain, and the makeshift shelters are already breaking down and dissolving. The conditions for the homeless and displaced people are absolutely inhumane and getting worse every single day."

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My Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/

Article in local paper

If I had waited another 5 seconds I could have included this link in the last email.  Sorry!

http://www.ldnews.com/lebanonnews/ci_14710970

This is an article that appeared in the Lebanon Daily News related to Hershey's recent response to the Haiti earthquake.

Ben

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My Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/

Photos from our trip

Hi all,

Here are some photos from our recent trip to Haiti.   I'm not having much success with the video just yet, so I thought I would at least send these out.

http://picasaweb.google.com/benfredrick/March2010Photos?feat=directlink

If you click on "Slideshow" the photos will play through, but you may want to change the "seconds" from 3 to something like 7; otherwise the photos may go by too fast and you won't be able to read the captions.

Ben
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My Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/

More Chateau Deaus!!!

Some good news:   we have enough money to install 6 more Chateau Deaus in Pestel!  For those who might not know, these are 600 gallon containers that can collect water (through PVC piping) off of roofs.  

Here's a photo

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/DFanK3-NHhznulUxupZOdg?feat=directlink

Last year we installed 5, so now we're off to a really great start for 2010!!  I'd like to see us install 5 more this year.  Each Chateau Deau costs $1000 to purchase and install.  

In a land with no rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, or wells, these are life-savers in the truest sense of that word.  

The #2 reason for children dying in rural Haiti is diarrhea. 

I'm excited that we will be installing 6 more of these water collection systems in Pestel!

Ben

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My Blog
http://haitimedical.blogspot.com/