Featured Topics — Haiti After the Earthquake
Last updated January 27, 2011.
REPORTS FROM HAITI AFTER THE 2010 EARTHQUAKE
A year after the earthquake in Haiti, the foundations of a functioning public health system are beginning to coalesce. Nevertheless, long-standing public health problems remain.
Published Online January 10, 2011 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1100118)
A comparison of the genomes of two “outbreak” Vibrio cholerae isolates from Haiti with those of other isolates indicate that this outbreak strain is distinct from circulating Latin American isolates and bears striking similarity to recent isolates from South Asia. The epidemic is probably due to the introduction, through human activity, of V. cholerae from a distant geographic source.
Published Online December 9, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1012928)
Though cholera had not been seen in Haiti in at least a century, between October 20 and November 9, 2010, Partners in Health recorded 7159 cases of severe cholera. Health care workers responded as quickly as they could, but they were hampered by the rapidity with which the epidemic spread, overwhelming the hospitals with hundreds of patients and stretching already thin resources, staff, and materials.
Published Online December 9, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1012997)
Whereas the current WHO cholera-treatment protocol recommends antibiotics for only severe cases, the approach of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, recommends antibiotics for both severe and moderate cases. The authors argue that the use of antibiotics is an urgent issue for all stakeholders, because effective antibiotic therapy shortens the duration of illness and reduces the shedding of thousands of infectious doses.
Published Online December 9, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1013771)
Emergency-relief medical teams should be equipped with antimicrobial drugs appropriate for the treatment of gram-negative bacillary infections as well as with the drugs currently recommended.
There are three oral cholera vaccines that are inexpensive and simple to administer. The United States would do well to stockpile these vaccines for rapid deployment to parts of the world that suddenly find themselves at high risk for cholera.
Published Online November 24, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1012300)
Dr. Dominique Bayard worked in a makeshift hospital in Tabarre, a northeast section of Port-au-Prince, where the hospital staff treated more than 800 patients a day for infections, disabilities, complications from delayed treatment, respiratory illness, sexually-transmitted disease, and chronic disease.
Published Online April 14, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1003839)
Anesthesiologists have a unique view of humanitarian disasters, Dr. Paul Firth discovered when he spent 21 days volunteering on the U.S.N.S Comfort in Haiti.
Published Online March 24, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMpv1003218)
Dr. Annekathryn Goodman traveled with a U.S. national disaster team to Haiti, where they set up a mobile tent hospital on the sites of a devastated school and a nearby adolescent clinic. On the second day, she began what she came to call “touch rounds.”
Published Online March 3, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1002311)
Dr. Ofer Merin and colleagues write that every mass-casualty event raises ethical issues concerning the priorities of treatment, but the Haiti disaster was exceptional in several ways.
Published Online March 3, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1001693)
Dr. Marjorie Curran writes that the hundreds of patients who were cared for on the USNS Comfort are but a drop in the bucket compared with the number of injured remaining on shore.
Published Online March 3, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMpv1002319)
Dr. J. Daniel Kelly asks what will happen to Haiti’s amputees. He discusses lessons he learned from Sierra Leone’s history with amputees.
Published Online March 3, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMpv1002391)
Dr. Raina Merchant and colleagues provide an overview for health care professionals about how to volunteer to help in public health emergencies and disasters.
Published Online February 24, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1001737)
Project Medishare treated 425 severely injured survivors in the first week after the Haitian earthquake. Dr. Enrique Ginzburg and colleagues from Project Medishare describe their rapid response.
Published Online February 24, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1002026)
A medical-relief team from Stanford University Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center arrived at a hospital in Port-au-Prince on January 17, followed a few days later by the U.S. military. Dr. Paul Auerbach and colleagues describe the civil–military collaboration.
Published Online February 24, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1001555)
Dr. Paul Delonnay, a physician born and raised in Port-au-Prince, reports on his return to Haiti to provide medical assistance.
Published Online February 19, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMpv1001789)
After the earthquake, Zanmi Lasante, the Haitian branch of Partners in Health, became the largest and one of the most important health care providers in Haiti. Tracy Kidder describes Zanmi Lasante’s response to Haiti’s catastrophe.
Published Online February 17, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1001705)
Haiti has long had difficulty in protecting its children from harm. Dr. Satchit Balsari and colleagues write that, in the wake of the sweeping disaster, the plight of Haiti’s children has acquired new and terrible dimensions.
Published Online February 17, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1001820)
The GHESKIO field hospital was established 7 days after the earthquake, with the arrival of a surgical team from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Jean William Pape and colleagues describe caring for patients at the field hospital and clinics.
Published Online February 17, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMpv1001787)
Dr. Jean William Pape and colleagues describe the swelling refugee camp and the provision of primary care and disease surveillance.
Published Online February 12, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMpv1001785)
With most of the hospitals in the capital city devastated by the earthquake, a rural clinic in Cange has become a destination of choice for people injured in the capital. Dr. Stephen Sullivan and colleagues describe their experience providing surgical care at the Cange hospital.
Published Online February 3, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1000976)
Dr. Louise Ivers and Kimberly Cullen from Partners in Health argue that there is a critical need for disaster-relief organizations on the ground in Haiti to coordinate efforts, both during this acute phase of the response and moving forward.
Published Online February 3, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMpv1001326)
The earthquake on January 12 killed or gravely injured hundreds of thousands of people in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Drs. Jean William Pape, Warren Johnson, and Daniel Fitzgerald describe the efforts to provide medical relief.
Published Online January 27, 2010 (DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1001015)
