Haiti & Dominican Republic Hope To Raise $2.2 Billion To Eliminate Cholera

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The governments of Haiti and the Dominican Republic have launched a joint project, backed by several international health groups, to eradicate cholera from their countries within the next ten years, reported the Associated Press on Thursday, after more than 8,000 people were killed by the disease ever since it surfaced in October 2010.


The governments of Haiti and the Dominican Republic have launched a joint project, backed by several international health groups, to eradicate cholera from their countries within the next ten years, reported the Associated Press on Thursday, after more than 8,000 people were killed by the disease ever since it surfaced in October 2010.

The U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, one of the organisations involved in the project, said that at least $2.2 billion would be needed to fund the plan; while other organisations such as the Pan-American Health Organization and UNICEF will help to coordinate and execute cross-border efforts, which will roll out in “a week or two.”

Dr. Jordan Tappero, director of the Health Systems Reconstruction Office for the CDC’s Center for Global Health, told AP that the bulk of the funds raised would go into developing Haiti’s barely existent water and sanitation system, where about half of the population have no access to a bathroom.

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[quote]“This is the greatest public health intervention that could be implemented in Haiti, but it’s a long-term strategy, it’s not a fix tomorrow,” Tappero said, citing the need to permanently eliminate transmission of cholera throughout both nations.[/quote]

Authorities believe that the disease was first introduced to Haiti in October 2010 by a unit of peacekeepers from Nepal, where cholera is endemic.

Cholera is easily preventable, but the poor state of Haiti’s sanitation infrastructure has caused the disease to spread quickly. More than 7,600 people in Haiti and more than 420 in neighbouring Dominican Republic have died from the disease, health officials say. The project brief also warned that the disease could spread to the rest of the hemisphere if left unchecked.

So far, the World Bank has already pledged $5 million, unspent money from a $15 million grant that went toward the health ministry and government’s water department, to go into the project.

“We’re looking at this plan to figure out what we’re doing with the rest,” said Maryanne Sharp, a Haiti project manager for the World Bank.

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Tappero said that one of the biggest concerns in the country, in relations to the spread of cholera, was dealing with the problem of open defecation.

[quote]”If you don’t have a place to defecate, where solid waste can be cleaned up then you openly defecate,” Tappero said.[/quote]

The project, discounting the World Bank’s pledge, is to date unfunded. Organisers say that they will soon approach international donors for support, though they will first need to fully develop their action plan.

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