The rate of deaths in Haiti's cholera epidemic slowed on Monday as a multinational medical operation scaled up to limit the spread of an outbreak that has killed 259 people in the earthquake-hit country.
Despite initial encouraging signs of a decrease in the week-old outbreak's lethality, Haitian and international health authorities warned they were still preparing for the deadly diarrheal disease to extend further before it was controlled.
"A nationwide outbreak with tens of thousands of cases is a real possibility," the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said in a statement.
....
After several days in which fatalities had numbered dozens each day, only six cholera deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours in the main outbreak region of Artibonite in central Haiti, bringing total deaths to 259. Confirmed cases rose to 3,342, compared with 3,015 a day ago, health authorities said.
Pray that the cholera epidemic does not spread further, especially to the tent cities in and around Port-au-Prince, where those who lost their homes in the earthquake are living.
A Prayer for Haiti
by Josh Thomas
O Father of the poor and Mother of the oppressed: Enfold in your arms the suffering people of Haiti. Comfort those in mourning; relieve those in pain; give shelter to the homeless and hope to those in despair. Feed your people, O God, with bread both earthly and divine, and give them your water and wine. Help them bury the dead, nurse the sick and wounded, and raise their faith and dignity, for they are some of your dearest children. Proclaim your truth that this vibrant, creative nation still shines as a beacon of freedom throughout the Americas. And help the people of Haiti, with the nations of the world, to rebuild their colorful land in the image of your Son Jesus Christ, who knows our suffering because he took our mortal pain into his body on the Cross, then rose again to live and reign with you and the Holy Comforter. Amen.
From The Daily Office.
UPDATE: Please consider giving to your favorite charity to help the people of Haiti. If you have no favorite, I suggest Episcopal Relief and Development. The organization provides excellent aid in Haiti and operates on very low overhead, so that nearly all of your donation goes toward actual help for those who are in need.
UPDATE 2: From the comments, Caminante adds:
Anyone wanting to contribute to this for now can send a cheque made out to the DFMS (Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church) with Haitian Initiative in the memo line.
Also Pure Water for the World, a 501 c 3 foundation run by a member of the congregation I serve has been working madly in Haiti to get inexpensive but good water filters out.
The blog h5n1 keeps fairly close tabs on the cholera outbreak. The immediate problem seems to be clean water to drink and to wash in and proper sanitary facilities so that people ill with cholera (or other diseases) don't contaminate the water.
ReplyDeletePrayers ascending!
ReplyDeletePrayers from me too.
ReplyDeletePrayers for the people there, and that the world will finally wake up. Why is their infrastructure, particularly basic water and sanitation, not further along at this juncture. We have been fiddling around down there. There are still people living under plastic sheeting. The world should be ashamed.
ReplyDeleteThe larger church will be asked to participate in the Haitian Solidarity Initiative that Executive Council just approved on Sunday. I am not sure how much we raised; we took up a collection of cheques and pledges on Monday at our closing liturgy but it looked to me as though everyone got up and put something into the basket. You'll be hearing more about this soon. Anyone wanting to contribute to this for now can send a cheque made out to the DFMS with Haitian Initiative in the memo line.
ReplyDeleteAlso Pure Water for the World, a 501 c 3 foundation run by a member of the congregation I serve has been working madly in Haiti to get inexpensive but good water filters out. They were on the ground prior to the earthquake and were able to get industrial-size filters into some of the tarp camps shortly after the quake. Look them up at that name all one word dot org and you can contribute there too.
The larger church will be asked to participate in the Haitian Solidarity Initiative that Executive Council just approved on Sunday. I am not sure how much we raised; we took up a collection of cheques and pledges on Monday at our closing liturgy but it looked to me as though everyone got up and put something into the basket. You'll be hearing more about this soon. Anyone wanting to contribute to this for now can send a cheque made out to the DFMS with Haitian Initiative in the memo line.
ReplyDeleteAlso Pure Water for the World, a 501 c 3 foundation run by a member of the congregation I serve has been working madly in Haiti to get inexpensive but good water filters out. They were on the ground prior to the earthquake and were able to get industrial-size filters into some of the tarp camps shortly after the quake. Look them up at that name all one word dot org and you can contribute there too.