Haiti Earthquake Relief, Phase Two — Long-Term Needs and Local Resources

Abstract

Dr. Dominique Bayard worked in a makeshift hospital in Tabarre, a northeast section of Port-au-Prince, where the hospital staff treated more than 800 patients a day for infections, disabilities, complications from delayed treatment, respiratory illness, sexually-transmitted disease, and chronic disease. A month and a half after January's devastating earthquake in Haiti, the National Organization for the Advancement of Haitians, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization with a division dedicated to improving health care in Haiti, sent in teams of U.S. physicians and other health care professionals, primarily of Haitian descent, as the acute phase of disaster response was ending. As part of this group, I worked in a makeshift hospital in Tabarre, a section of northeast Port-au-Prince. As a first-generation Haitian-American and an internist, I expected to be prepared for the situation I was walking into. Haiti was a country I knew, . . .; The long-term disaster relief response and recovery phase after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, January 2010 which would get worse at the onset of rainy season leading to various infectious disease, are reviewed. A clear insight into the changing medical need, together with the collaboration of the strong-willed Haitian people, might drive an effective effort to rebuild Haiti and make it stronger than ever.;   According to the World Health Organization (WHO), respiratory infections are now the main cause of illness, followed by trauma or injury, diarrhea, and suspected malaria.1 Crowding and poor sanitation in rapidly growing tent settlements were creating or exacerbating medical problems, particularly in children.