The cholera epidemic that has killed over 1,300 people and left tens of thousands sick has reached the capital city of Port-au-Prince, and is quietly taking it toll on a population that lack proper access to sanitation and hygiene. Aid workers are not concerned so much with the disease reaching the larger tent camps, as many are provided clean drinking water and have such a heavy NGO presence that the necessary aid would likely be provided in the event of an outbreak. They are more worried about it spreading in the slums, especially in places like Cite Soleil, where shanty towns lack access to clean water, and where the sanitation infrastructure is non-existent.
From our perspective, it wasn’t clear that cholera had hit the city, even though news reports were claiming otherwise. You just don’t see it. Living in our house in a relatively nice part of town, the presence of cholera was not obvious, which stresses that this is not a disease that people who have the proper resources get. It’s a disease that affects the poor, but with the vast majority of people in this country living on less than $2 a day, almost everyone is vulnerable. All we needed to do was travel downtown last Thursday and the toll of this cholera epidemic slapped us in the face.
Ben and I were driving around PAP Thursday looking for protests when we drove by a man who looked like he was dead on the side of the road. We pulled over and looked down, “Yeah, he’s dead,” I said just as the man moved his head back and forth lethargically. We were shocked, so we asked people who were standing close-by how long he had been laying there. They explained that the man had cholera and that he had been there for a couple hours. Soon after his mother came and began to wail, saying that he was her only child and asking “Why is this happening?” in Kreyol.
NOTE: The following pictures are graphic. If you would like to continue reading please click “continue reading”.
It turned out that there was a Cholera Treatment Center just 200 feet from where this man was dying, so we ran to the center and asked the staff to come and help this man who was fighting for his life. They delayed, and by the time they came to check on the man he had died. The mother wailed, stomping her feet and crying into her hands, and then a large truck with an open back pulled up carrying men draped in yellow rain coats and facemasks. They jumped off the truck and began spraying the body with a bleach-water mixture to disinfect the body and the surrounding area (including the mother).
The team wrapped the body in a white body bag and put it into the bed of the truck they had arrived in. They got back in the truck, drove to the cholera treatment center 200 feet away, picked up another 7 bodies, and then headed out. They told us they were heading to a mass grave that had been prepared, somewhere out in the mountains, and that we should follow. “You need to see how many bodies we have,” explained one of them.
The team is a rag-tag group of young Haitian men who have been tasked with the job of collecting those in the city who have died from cholera. There is a phone number that people can call when someone has died from the disease, and these are the guys that come to pick up your loved ones. They don’t ask for a name, they don’t ask for a phone number or any information about the victim, they just spray down the body, put them in body bags, and then load them in the car. The family members or friends will never know where the body is laid to rest, they will never be able to pay their respects.
Ben and I were following the truck as it pulled away from the cholera treatment center on its way to burial site when we were stopped by a crowd of people gathered around what looked like a pile of clothes surrounded by ‘Caution’ tape. We stopped with the truck, and were told that it was the body of a 10 year-old boy. He had died of cholera and they had put his body in the street so that someone would pick it up.
The crowd surrounding the body grew bigger, and the boy’s mother appeared amongst the throngs of people. According to her, her son had been in school just yesterday. “He got sick in the middle of the night, around 1am, and then around 10am he died,” she explained with her arm around her daughter, “I didn’t think he was that sick.”
And this case is a perfect example of why the cholera outbreak is hitting Haiti so hard. The lack of eduction amongst the people in regards to the disease is resulting in hundreds of people dying when it’s completely preventable. Severe diarrhea is prevalent here anyways, especially in the slums, so when people get the symptoms of cholera they don’t react much differently because Haiti hasn’t seen a disease like this in over 50 years. I’ve said in the past that cholera is 100% treatable as long as you get to the hospital in time, and it’s still true. Unfortunately, people wait too long to bring their loved ones to the hospital, and once they arrive it’s too late, OR they just don’t have the means to transport them, and they don’t make it to the hospital at all.
The team bagged the body of the 10 year-old boy and then jumped back in the truck on their way to the mass grave. Ben and I followed them the next day to the grave which is located just 30 minutes outside the city at the base of the mountains to the north. The truck barreled down the roads, leaving the scent of death behind it, and effortlessly passing through police checkpoints as just the mention of cholera gets you a free pass. They drove down a long gravel road off the highway, and behind a large hill sat a towering pile of dirt next to a hole large enough to fit at least 3 large SUVs. Inside the walls of the newly dug grave you could see pockets of remains from earthquake victims that were buried the same way. On the floor of the grave sat a single human skull.
They backed the truck up to the grave and started unloading the bodies into the hole. One-by-one the body bags tumbled to the bottom of the 20 foot-deep pit that resembled a trash dump more than a memorial to those who had just died. Another truck arrived to unload another 10 cholera victims, and in the end the grave had a disorganized pile of 22 body bags sitting on one end. The sheer enormity of the hole made the small pile of bodies sitting there seem that much less significant, as this wasn’t just their grave, it would be the grave of hundreds more. “We’ll keep on putting bodies in here until it’s full,” one of the team members explained, “and then we’ll cover it with dirt and dig another one.”
The sun set on the grave and the mosquitoes swarmed the living, causing everyone to flee to their cars, and then their homes. This will be their job for the foreseeable future, as this epidemic is not showing any signs of letting up. “It’s definitely increasing,” one of the workers explained, “On Monday we had 5, Tuesday we had 12, and today we have 22. It’s a lot of work.”
I normally wouldn’t write such a gruesome post but this seemed like something that needed to be put out there. The situation in PAP is bad, and the fact that it has resulted in this is terrifying. There is a ton of anger amongst the people regarding the source of the epidemic, and all signs are pointing towards Nepalese UN troops who have a base by the Artibonite River, where the epidemic began. The CDC has confirmed the strain came from southeast Asia, and there is video of latrines at the Nepalese base that leak their sewage directly into the river. The UN’s response to these accusations is that “the source of the epidemic doesn’t change our response to it medically,” but it is irresponsible to not take responsibility for being responsible for the deaths of thousands of Haitians when you are supposed to be here to protect them.
The numbers are grossly under-reported, as the number of deaths that the Ministry of Health announces every day is only including those who died in a hospital, or were brought there after they died. Hundreds, if not thousands of people are dying in their homes, or out in the countryside, because they didn’t get a chance to make it to the hospital. While it’s just an estimate, I would say that that number is probably only a 10th of the real number of deaths. Even the team that was collecting bodies admitted that they didn’t provide their data to anyone.
But the saddest part of all of this is that this epidemic is not going anywhere. Health officials here admit that cholera will be in Haiti for at least 20-30 years, and in the end will affect over 200,000 people. Until the infrastructure here changes into something that can sustain a proper sanitation system and deliver clean water, the disease will continue making people sick, and killing others. It’s scary because for the people who have lived with absolutely nothing, and could survive before the epidemic because they had learned to live with so little, this is uncharted territory. But now this disease has come and taken everyone by surprise, killing those who have been fighting for their lives for decades, in just a matter of hours.
This was extremely difficult to read, but I thank you for your candid photos and your dedicated reporting. This story proved to be a slap in the face that I needed. It is far too easy to sit here in the U.S. and avoid the realities of daily struggles in Haiti. It angers me and pains me to realize that death comes to those that would survive with simple preventative measures or treatments. No holiday gifts this year, my $ will be sent to Haiti. I know it is meager, but I’ll continue to contemplate more purposeful ways of helping.
very nice post, you are a good person. but i would be very careful with where you send your donations. i went down this summer to a town near the capital, and there is a lot of corruption in organizations that take donations. the best thing to help would be for more people to go down there, and spend time with haitians and work on projects so they can make money and live better. make sure you send your money to people that are going down there or are part of reputable organizations
There is a lot of waste or complete disuse of aid money in Haiti. However, I was in Haiti for the month of November working with an incredible organization that is doing great work with minimal funds. You should check them out.
The organization is called All Hands Volunteers (I was volunteering for that month) and their website is http://www.hands.org. One of their many projects is building bio-sand filters, which provide people with clean drinking water.
Frank, No human should have to experience what the Haitians are enduring. It must be so hard… One has to ask the question, “when will the suffering end?”
Frank, this is the hardest thing to read you’ve ever written; I can’t imagine how the events effected you. Thank God you and Ben had the intestinal (oh, ironic!) fortitude to follow the truck and it’s sad passengers to it’s destination. It’s gone way beyond admiration for the endurance of the Haitian people and disgust at their vacuum of a government: this is stupid and senseless. To die in the street 70 meters from a treatment center for want of clean water, table salt and sugar? Is PAP devoid of Gatorade? Has no one read the WHO recipe for re-hydration solution? (1 ltr CLEAN water, 1 tsp salt, 4 tsp sugar & a splash of orange juice if you’ve got it)
I’m so sorry you were the one who had to record this, Frank, yet I’m very proud also that you did such a fine job.
How can we help? I wish I could write those words with the enormity of what I am feeling.
Wow. I am not quite sure how to respond. Just know that our thoughts and prayers are with all of you.
[…] Cholera Reaches Port-au-Prince as Victims Are Left In Mass Graves […]
Please continue to pray for the people of Haiti and send donations only to those you know who are directly involved with a ministry and can see and report that the funds are being put to use to help them NOW.
heartbreaking.
thanks for your honest pictures and narrative. God bless your work there
Matt is heading down on Friday. As we pack supplies for the medical team, it is sickening to realize how little it is compared to what is needed. You have to be strong to see these things and not be able to help. At least those of us reading your words can mourn with these mothers that have lost their sons. I am crying now with them.
Thank you for keeping an honest and vivid account of what is really happening. We ( M.A.T.H. ) have been hearing about the under reporting of deaths from one of the mobile clinic translators. When will Haiti ever get a break ?….until they do, we rely on the truth you report and unavoidable evidence of suffering in your photos.
Thanks for showing us these pictures, it is sad that there is so much corruption in government and that it could be prevented.
Our prayers are with you and God Bless your work. Nick and Jessie
Thank you for this report, as tough as it was to read it. Why isn’t the UN taking responsibility for their mistake (OK, maybe because they SHOULD have known not to dump human waste in a river that is used by the nearby population for basic needs?). Maybe if they took responsibility for their “mistake”, and FIX it, they could help avoid further riots? People are dying, and MAD at this situation that was 100% preventable. Sadly, this results in riots against the UN (which is not helping the situation, obviously), but mad and desperate people can’t be asked to act rationally, when the so-called “rational” people (i.e. UN) aren’t acting rationally either. I came back from a trip to Haiti just before the cholera outbreak was announced. This country didn’t need this on top of everything else. They are really struggling…
There are vaccines for cholera or strains can be ‘typed’ then designed and the admimistration may be drinkable.
Thank you for sharing this stark reality. It breaks my heart when I read stuff like this …but it is a reality that needs to be known.
I am praying that the elections coming up on Nov 28
will bring Haiti representatives who want to make the intrasturcture and thus life better for the people of Haiti.
May God bless you!
Loving God and Loving Haiti!!!
Kelly D <
BTW I posted a link to this post on my blog…KD’S Korner (kdizskorner.blogspot.com)
Loving God, Loving Haiti
KD < 🙂
First, let me say that I have been a fan of your blog since I discovered you about a month ago.
I appreciate the post and photos; it can’t have been easy to see, follow, and report on the experience.
That said, some observations.
1) Don’t you find it odd that this person had lain for a few hours just 200 feet from a treatment center? Why had no one alerted them?
2) You may want to be more careful before attributing the outbreak to the Nepalese. While it’s true that the CDC confirmed that this particular strain originated in south Asia, the bacterium is a global migrant thanks to air travel and trade; the CDC also indicated that we may never know how the illness started. The “evidence” re the Nepalese is circumstantial, rather than definitive; it’s rather harsh to lay the blame for thousands of deaths at the feet of the UN. Comments like this only fuel the demonstrations such as what we saw last week where the local population was actually impeding the delivery of supplies and medicines.
3) While whisking the body away may seem (and is) cruel, it is an unfortunate fact that people who have died of cholera may indeed pose a significant health risk to those who come into contact with the remains. I can tell you from experience that I have seen the bodies of accident victims remain on the scene for 12 hours or more before removal, and we definitely want to avoid situations like that in the case of a contagious disease.
I do hope that someone is at least attempting to keep track of the bodies. Someone must have dispatched this disposal team, and is (hopefully) keeping track of what they do and where they go. I find it hard to believe that there would be no attempt to get a name, especially since there was family present on scene.
2)
I just wanna thanks the staff who help to have these in formations and pictures we heard enough rumor about cholera
.
many haitian people are waITING FOR A QUICK SOLUTION TO THAT SICKNESS, WE HAVE TOO MUCH PROBLEM TO SOLVE.
HAITIAN PEOPLE ARE SICK MENTALY NOW TO MUCH NEWS TO ABSORBE
This is just heartbreaking, my thoughts and prayers are with the Haitian people….and with all of you who have given up so much….to be their helping these people. May God protect and Bless all of you!
Posters showing incorrect instructions for making an oral rehydration solution using salt, sugar and water are being widely distributed by the Ministry of Public Health and other organizations in Haiti.
Half (1/2) teaspoon of Salt and Six (6) teaspoons of Sugar should be dissolved in 1 Litre of water. (Not 1 Gallon of water as the poster says). For further clarification, please see: http://factsforlifeglobal.org/07/5.html
The mixture, using the proportions that are suggested in the poster, would be too weak to do much good in rehydrating a dehydrated child or adult.
The following actions need to be taken immediately:
1. The current posters need to be withdrawn and replaced.
2. A communications campaign to inform everybody locally that the old poster had incorrect information and they should use 1 Litre and not 1 Gallon.
Your help is requested to inform everybody in Haiti of the correct way to make this life-saving solution.
Thank you.
ALIMA ( http://www.alimaong.org/ ) is a great organization that is up and running. They are employing Haitians, running pop-up clinics all over PaP, they get the need for there to be clinics in as many locations as possible. They seem to be very efficient and less bureaucratic then the big NGOs. By the by, I am a photojournalist and have been to Haiti three times this year.
I find your reporting refreshing, honest, accurate and well, I’m happy to see it. Thanks.
Julie
Thank you so much for sharing. I am heartbroken, but grateful to have your honesty and openness about what is happening. Sending up many prayers…
I know of a couple reputable organization which would make sure your donations make it to those in need in Haiti – one is House of Hope Haiti (which I personally have worked with, just returned from a missions trip with them) as well as Artists for Hope (a doctor I work with is a part of this group). It is difficult to know for sure if your money/donations are getting to the people of need in Haiti but I am sure that these 2 organizations are legit. Keep praying for the people of Haiti!!
Your representation of Haiti on this blog-especially this post-is full of truth yet graced with dignity.
I made reference to this post via twitter-please let me know if that is not ok.
Blessings,
marcia erickson
Powerful story telling complimented by frank photos. Thank you for being there & telling this story.
Nand Wadhwani – Health workers including ours in the mid- Artibonite spotted that error and corrected it, though we have other posters and materials we are using as well.
We are also checking the commonly used amounts of chlorine per one gallon and 5 gallons of water. We found that 5 drops of chorine per gallon hardly registers on a chlorine test, the calcium in the hard water here uses up a large amount of the chlorine. Per each gallon, 8 drops of good chlorine or 6 grains of the powdered chlorine sold in markets yields an acceptable free chlorine rate in our hard water.
Dawn Johnson, HAS
Excellent article and photographs. Thank you for showing dignity and compassion to the victims and their families while still telling the world of the tragic stories. MMRC does everything they can do fight cholera in North Haiti. It would appear there will (unfortunately) be much work in Port Au Prince over the next weeks and months.
Dawn Johnson – Thank you. Would appreciate you posting the link to the corrected poster.
don;t you feel that these disease ridden bodies should be burnt rather than put in the ground to be absorbed by the water table. I would think that it would probably help to clean the water system and maybe help prevent the spread of any disease
[…] the Goat Path is one of my favourite Haiti blogs. This recent post about the cholera epidemic is eye-opening. **Please note the warning about graphic content** […]
In South Florida, we have over 700 surplus portable wood and steel-framed classrooms available for shipment to Haiti.
These units can be used as cholera treatment centers and can be set up in a matter of days to serve the Haitian people.
Your pictures and reporting continue to highlight the extreme need for sound logistical and funding solutions to transport the portables to Haiti.
Our group, Portables4Haiti.org, does not and will not collect money. All we want to do is help by connecting the right parties with achievers who can get the job done on an expedited basis.
Now that hurricane season is over, we need support from the international community, the American government, the Interim Recovery Commission, and the Haitian governments (existing and just forming) to make this project a reality.
Please visit our web site at http://www.Portables4Haiti.org for more details.
[…] I can’t even fathom what is happening in Port Au Prince. This blog entry gives a glimpse. Goat’s Path Blog LikeBe the first to like this […]
Frank –
Wrote the other day but no answer, maybe your email is “blocking” my address – here it is pasted in below.
But also in your blogs re the current situation, I think it would be sage to reflect that the anger of many in the streets has little to do with politics and a lot to do with economics, with social conditions, with cholera, with no public schools, etc. Looking forward to hearing from you.
– Jane
MAIL
Hi Frank
I am part of this effort:
http://www.haitigrassrootswatch.org
meaning I work with Haitian journalists.
We are working on the water-sanitation-cholera issue.
I came across your post that has the cholera his PAP text and photos.
I wondered if we could use some of those photos in our upcoming dossier. We would publish online and would link to your blog – that page.
Let me know, and thank you.
Jane
PRAYING PRAYING PRAYING
IS THE BEST THING I CAN DO RIGHT NOW
As heartbreaking as it is-your delivery was exactly what is needed to show the urgency of this crisis.
Continue spreading the work.
[…] (Source de la photo : https://goatpath.wordpress.com/ […]
[…] (Source de la photo : https://goatpath.wordpress.com/ […]
[…] (Source de la photo : https://goatpath.wordpress.com/ […]
[…] https://goatpath.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/cholera-reaches-port-au-prince-as-victims-are-left-in-mass-… […]