Cholera

A rapidly spreading cholera outbreak is straining the resources of nonprofits and local hospitals in a country where fuel, water and other basic supplies ...

“I told him, ‘Honey, you need to drink the tea,’” she recalled. “He said to me … Life is paralyzed for many Haitians, including Enfant, as she mourned her son’s death. Gas stations and businesses including water companies have closed, forcing an increasing number of people to rely on untreated water. As Joliva grew sicker, Enfant tried to care for him on her own. Enfant sat next to her son’s body as she recalled how Joliva told her he was feeling sick earlier this week. “We have two more weeks of fuel.” He joined dozens of other Haitians who have died from cholera during a rapidly spreading outbreak that is straining the resources of nonprofits and local hospitals in a country where fuel, water and other basic supplies are growing scarcer by the day. Across Haiti, many patients are dying because say they’re unable to reach a hospital in time, health officials say. Families kept rushing in this week with loved ones, sometimes dragging their limp bodies into the crowded outdoors clinic where the smell of waste filled the air. So far this month, Doctors Without Borders has treated some 1,800 patients at their four centers in Port-au-Prince. She had already warned him and her two other sons not to bathe or wash clothes in the sewage-contaminated waters that ran through a nearby ravine in their neighborhood — the only source of water for hundreds in that area.