OCHA – Map of Haiti Cholera Outbreak (as of 27 Nov 2010)
HAITI: Cholera Outbreak (as of 27 Nov 2010) – Location Map
PUR instruction leaflets and Standard Operating Procedures Manual
Many thanks to Greg Allgood, allgood.gs@pg.com, for sharing these documents:
USA’s CDC says origins of Haiti cholera outbreak may never be known
Public Health, Tuesday 30 November 2010 – In a US State Department briefing yesterday, Dr. Manoj Menon of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC liaison to USAID for the Haiti cholera response and a medical epidemiologist with the malaria branch of the CDC’s Center for Global Health refused to say that the source of the cholera epidemic in Haiti was not UN teams brought in to the country. But he also failed to provide any comfort as to whether a source would ever be identified.
The State Department’s Special Coordinator for Haiti, Tom Adams addressed the briefing saying “for at least 50 years and perhaps as long as a hundred years, Haiti has not had any cholera so there are no immunities amongst the population. Also, this strain of cholera seems to be more virulent than the normal strains.”
GFS Announces Unprecedented Log 10 Kill of Haiti Cholera Strain by Waste Treatment
Brisbane, Australia (PRWEB) November 30, 2010 – Global Future Solutions (GFS) announced today that its non-toxic waste treatment products GFS BioProtect? Effluent Remediator (BPER) and GFS BioProtect? Industrial Cleaner (BPIC) have been independently proven to kill the cholera strain responsible for the outbreak in Haiti, at Log 8 after three hours and Log 10 (99.99999999%) after 24 hours. The tests were carried out by the Triad Forensics Laboratory in North Carolina, USA.
GFS BioProtect? Effluent Remediator kills Vibrio cholera O:1, serotype Ogawa to Log 3 immediately, and the kill rate for this and several other pathogens continues to improve over time. The product breaks down B Class biomass (latrine and septic tank waste) into ‘A’ class biomass that is suitable for distribution and reuse.
“This is great news for non government organizations looking to contain cholera in the camps through better sanitation. There are disinfectants and waste treatments but this is the only product I know of that combines the two features and delivers this level of cholera kill,” says Bruce Smyth, Managing Director of Global Future Solutions and 10 year veteran of the industry.
K4Health – Haiti Relief Toolkit
The Haiti Relief Toolkit is a one-stop source for technical and practical information that will help health workers, health policy makers, program managers, and others respond to the earthquake relief efforts underway in Haiti. The toolkit covers the vital sectors in emergencies, including health, water and sanitation, food security, and shelter.
Another quick way to find all the resources on a particular topic is to use the search box at the top of any page. For example, if you type in “Cholera” you will see a list of results, including a comprehensive and easy to use Fact Sheet from PAHO/WHO on how to prevent, identify, and treat the disease.
Nov 26 OCHA Haiti cholera update
Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 26 Nov 2010
Full_Report: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/JALR-8BNJ4Z/$File/full_report.pdf (pdf* format – 1.4 Mbytes)
HIGHLIGHTS/KEY PRIORITIES
- The Ministry of Health (MSPP) reports 1,603 deaths and 29,871 hospitalised cases of cholera.
- Due to elections on 28 November, some humanitarian actors will abstain from activities for the day, though emergency humanitarian response activities will continue.
- The education cluster reports over 200 schools in Cite Soleil, nearly all schools in the commune, are receiving hygiene promotion and cholera prevention materials.
- Camp Coordination/Camp Management cluster teams built facilities for the establishment of 73 Oral Rehydration Posts out of 250 planned.
Ethiopia – AWD update
Nov 29, 2010 – A total of 159 new cases of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD), with two deaths, were reported in Oromia and SNNPR between 1 and 14 November 2010. The majority of the cases (85 cases) and both deaths were reported from Oromia. Affected woredas include Haro Maya and Jarso in East Hararghe zone and Uraga, Shakiso and Adola in Guji zone (Oromia) and Dara and Bona Zuria in Sidama zone and Wenago, Dila town and Yirgachefe in Gedio zone (SNNPR).
UNICEF reports that Case Treatment Centers (CTCs) have been established in Haro Maya woreda and prevention activities, including distribution of water treatment chemicals and dissemination of AWD prevention messages, are in progress. CARE has provided medical supplies and water storage containers to the woreda. Meanwhile, there have been no reports of AWD cases associated with the Dire Sheikh Hussein religious ceremony in Oromia. Ahead of the celebration, the Regional Health Bureau (RHB), UNICEF and Merlin provided pilgrims with water treatment chemicals and conducted extensive awareness raising campaigns on AWD prevention and mitigation.
Full-report: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/JALR-8BNKKY/$File/full_report.pdf
Dominican Health chief confirms 7th cholera case
Nov 29, 2010 – SANTO DOMINGO.- The country’s latest cholera case brings the number of people sickened by the disease to seven, most of them residents the barrio El Digue, Santo Domingo East.
Public Health minister Bautista Rojas confirmed the information and announced that president Leonel Fernandez will address the country tomorrow on the importance of preventing cholera and other diseases, to officially launch National Education Day.
The new case is a five year old girl, a cousin of a 12 year old boy who resulted positive to the bacteria on Saturday.
Rojas said the family is being given a close follow up because with the new case the number of relatives affected now total four.
Haiti death toll from cholera rises to 1,721
(AFP) – Nov 29, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE — At least 1,721 Haitians have died from a worsening cholera epidemic in the earthquake-devastated country, according to new figures released by the health ministry on Monday.
The latest toll comes a day after Haitians voted in chaotic elections marred by violence and widespread allegations of fraud.
A total of 75,888 people have been infected by the disease and 33,485 have been hospitalized since the outbreak in mid-October.
US Urged to Stockpile Cholera Vaccine
Drug Discovery & Development – November 29, 2010
In the wake of devastating cholera outbreaks in refugee camps in earthquake-wracked Haiti, a group of leading experts from Harvard Medical School, George Washington University, and the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) have urged the United States to create an emergency stockpile of cholera vaccines for future humanitarian use.
“The costs to the U.S. of creating and maintaining a stockpile of several million doses of cholera vaccine would be low,” said the experts in an article published online first on November 24 in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). “But the humanitarian benefits of rapid deployment of cholera vaccines to areas at high risk for major cholera outbreaks — such as earthquake-wracked Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital where 1.3 million people live in unsanitary refugee camps — could be enormous.”
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