Unfortunately, 9 months after the horrible earthquake that occurred on January 12th, 2010, Haiti has been hit with a Cholera outbreak! This is one of the things we've been worried about since the earthquake with people living in tent cities, with no clean water, no place to put human waste.
As of noon today, 140 people had died and 1500 were infected. Haiti did not need this!
Cholera is a waterborne disease, which if not treated can be deadly in a very short period of time. Fortunately, the treatment is as simple as re-hydration salts and/or IV fluids to re-hydrate. In Canada this isn't a huge deal, in a place like Haiti - where all of the infrastructure was destroyed during the earthquake, it means there are many deaths!
I started my Cholera vaccine today - yummy! Although, the places where we stay all have filtered and bottled water and cook their food well. It's all about hand hygiene... must stock up on Purell!
11 sleeps and we'll be in Haiti! I'm really looking forward to seeing all my friends again and making new friends. I'm also looking forward to doing some work with the kiddos!
Bon Bagay!
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