As you read this, I’m sure that like us most of you are isolating at home, worried and wondering what our world will look like in a few months. Just over 3 months ago it would have been unimaginable to think that the most wealthy and powerful country in the world, the U.S., would have over 137,000 cases of a Novel Corona Virus. That’s more than any other country on the globe, and our death toll of 2,500 to date steadily climbs each day. Even with all the resources the U.S. has, this pandemic is upending whatever “normalcy” we’ve grown to expect.
Now imagine the situation of people living in Haiti, one of the poorest and most densely populated countries on earth with an estimated population of 11 million. If you’ve been following our Newsletters you’ll know that even before this pandemic Haiti had basically become a failed state without a functional government where theft, violence and kidnapping have become commonplace. As for the Haitian medical system, a 2019 study published by the Research and Education Consortium for Acute Care in Haiti states there are only 124 ICU beds, with the capacity to ventilate 62 patients within ICUs in the entire country, and we know the countries unreliable power supply renders any ventilator use precarious at best. Now that Covid-19 has arrived on its shores, Haitians have a great deal to worry about.
All of that being said, there is good news from the Healing Art Missions Health Clinic in Dumay. It continues to operate serving the health care needs of the community with Medical Director, Dr. Jacques, working hard setting up protocols and training for clinic staff, as well as scrounging to find personal protective equipment such as face masks, gloves and hand sanitizer. He set up a community education program on how to avoid catching and spreading Covid-19 through constant hand washing and social distancing. He is currently looking to hire a local seamstress to sew face masks for members of the community, and for clinic use, if/when their supply of N95 masks run out. But the reality is that our clinic is not set up with an ICU or ventilators, so if anyone in the community succumbs to the pulmonary or respiratory complications from the virus, there is little we can do beyond medications, IV fluids, and Oxygen.
Doctors Tracee and Leslie had planned to return to Haiti in April, but that has been canceled for obvious reasons. For the time being, the best we can do from here in the U.S. is to provide moral support for Dr. Jacques and all the staff, help as best we can to make sure they have the supplies they need to do their jobs, and continue to pay them each month. Fortunately, we know from experience that the Haitian people are some of the most resilient people in the world.