Moving Forward in Haiti

IMA World Health Resumes National Health Program in Haiti

IMA World Health, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and other partners, resumed the national Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) Control program in mid-April, three months after the devastating earthquake which took an estimated 250,000 lives and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Reports from the field indicate the mass drug administration (MDA) in the northern region of Cap Haitien treated a total of over 270,000 people from April 15th to 18th. This number exceeded the total pre-earthquake population of the area by over 15%, evidence of the tremendous numbers of internally-displaced people scattered throughout the island nation.

IMA, which leads the USAID-funded national program to control and eliminate the two NTDs prevalent in Haiti, had been requested in consultation with the government colleagues to rapidly resume MDA in the areas less directly affected by the disaster.

Before rolling out the MDA, however, it was essential to conduct training for volunteer community health workers. This training was carried out in late March and was warmly welcomed by the participants.

Plans are now underway to continue the MDA in June in three additional areas in the country. By the fall, it is hoped that all intended areas for coverage in the original pre-earthquake action plan will have been reached, which will be a tremendous boost to the government's efforts to create greater confidence in the state's ability to provide health services.

Nevertheless, despite these successes, great challenges remain. The capital city of Port au Prince is still a disaster zone. Hundreds of thousands of people have scattered throughout the country seeking refuge and help wherever they can find it. Clean water and food are still not available in sufficient supply. Basic health services are spotty and of questionable quality.

It is in this context that IMA World Health convened a meeting in Miami on April 6th of member agency representatives. The result of several assessments were presented and a consensus was reached to combine funding and expertise in the creation of a new integrated development program, one that would provide health services, water, sanitation and nutrition in defined geographic areas for maximum impact. IMA's long experience with health zone management in the Democratic Republic of Congo, under the overall management of the Ministry of Health, helps immeasurably in the development of this new program.

"We are committed to helping the Haitians recover from this disaster and to provide health and other related services," said IMA President and CEO Rick Santos recently. "The NTD program is back on-track and, with the help of our member agencies, we will do much more in the months to come."