The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) expressed his deep concern on Wednesday about the cholera outbreak reported on October 2 and located in the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince and its surroundings.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus explained at a press conference in Geneva that as of last Saturday the outbreak had already claimed 16 fatalities and that the Haitian Ministry of Public Health had also recorded 224 suspected cases of the disease.
“A quarter of suspected cholera cases are in children under the age of five.. On Sunday, the Ministry also confirmed a cholera outbreak in the Port-au-Prince National Penitentiary, with 39 suspected cases and nine deaths,” he specified.
Tedros highlighted that the situation of the outbreak in the Caribbean country is evolving rapidly, and did not rule out the possibility of earlier or additional undetected casesas the surveillance mechanism established by the Haitian Government, which is supported by the WHO and its partners, operates under extremely difficult circumstances.
“The affected areas are very insecure and controlled by gangs, which makes it very difficult to collect samples and delays the confirmation of cases and the deaths in the laboratories”, he detailed.
To the serious situation of instability, he added that the lack of fuel makes it difficult for health workers to access their work, a situation that causes the closure of health centers and interrupts access to health services for people living in some of the the most disadvantaged communities.
“To control this cholera outbreak, we need safe access to the affected areas,” he stressed.
For her part, the director of the Pan American Health Organization affirmed that the recent outbreak of cholera in Haiti, the cases of monkeypox, the continuous infections by COVID-19 and low polio vaccination rates increase the need to prepare for health emergencies in the region of the Americas.
“Parallel health emergencies and fragile social, political and natural environments illustrate the importance of investing in and strengthening health systems,” explained Dr. Carissa Etienne during a virtual press conference today.
“We don’t have time to recover and prepare between crises,” he added. After more than three years, Haiti reported a cholera outbreak last week just as the country was about to be declared free of the disease.
More international aid needed for Pakistan
Continuing a warning issued last week that the death toll from Pakistan’s floods could be exceeded in the coming weeks or months, Tedros announced a new malaria outbreak in 32 districts, and warned that the incidence of cholera, dengue, Measles and diphtheria continue to rise in the districts affected by the floods.
“We expect the situation to continue to deteriorate. But so far, international support has not been of the magnitude or speed needed. Billions of dollars are being poured into fighting wars around the world. We continue to call on international donors to invest in saving lives in Pakistan.”
Monkeypox cases decrease, but the alert continues
In relation to monkeypox, he highlighted that the decrease in cases continues worldwide despite the increase in these during the last seven days in twenty-one nations, especially in the American continent.
So far, more than 70,000 cases, including 26 deaths, have been reported to the health agency.
“Once again, we note that a declining outbreak can be the most dangerous, because it can tempt us to think that the crisis is over, Let your guard down”, he alerted.
He stressed that the agency continues to work with countries to increase its analytical capacity, and to monitor trends in the outbreak.
“We are concerned about reports of cases in Sudan, including in refugee camps near the Ethiopian border. Like COVID-19, monkeypox remains a public health emergency of international concern, and will continue to be treated as such by the WHO,” he observed.
Finally, he recalled that the Emergency Committee on COVID-19 will hold its ordinary quarterly meeting tomorrow and that the WHO will inform the committee about the current situation of the disease worldwide.
“It is clear that we are now in a very different situation than we were when the committee recommended that I declare a public health emergency of international concern more than 33 months ago. We have all the necessary tools to end the emergency in all countries. But the pandemic is not over, and much work remains to be done“, warning.
