The international community has forgotten about Haiti in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, and immediate aid has dwindled to an insufficient long-term response as the island nation faces a new cholera epidemic amid recovery efforts, a broad spectrum of officials are warning.
“The low response is not fair to anybody, it is not fair to the people of Haiti, and frankly it’s not fair to the people working in the response effort there at the moment,” Dr. David Nabarro, an adviser to U.N. secretary general Ban Ki-moon, told the Independent on Friday.
In the three weeks that have passed since Hurricane Matthew devastated the Caribbean nation—the poorest in the Western Hemisphere—survivors have faced a lack of shelter and access to clean water and health services, particularly in remote regions, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported from the ground.
“During our medical consultations, our patients tell us they don’t know how to feed their families,” said Emmanuel Massart, MSF project coordinator in the large coastal department of Grand Anse. “Families lost livestock, fruit trees, and their entire personal reserves during the storm, and what is left is decaying because of insufficient protection from the rain.”
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MSF emergency medical coordinator Chiara Burzio added, “Women, men, and children are in a very vulnerable position. We are particularly concerned by the heightened risk of infectious diseases, cholera, and the deteriorating nutritional status of children under five in the isolated areas affected by the hurricane.”
News this year offered further proof that cholera was introduced to Haiti by U.N. peacekeepers in 2010, whose mission there was later found to have poor hygiene standards. Vibe reported Friday that the U.N. is rolling out a plan to compensate the nation’s cholera victims with a $400 million response package, but critics, including Dr. Nabarro, say that strategy is more about the U.N. clearing its conscience—and it’s failing at that, too.