EDITOR’S NOTE: Earlier this week, #HealthCaribbean featured the Dominican Republic, in our edition 2021-06-14. This newsletter features Haiti, as was then announced. Four of our five articles are on the COVID-19 pandemic. The remaining article is on malnutition in Haiti’s children. Additional content on Haiti can be found in our Twitter feed (@HealthC_bean).
Our headline, taken from the Jamaica Observer, reads: “UNICEF Warns of Increased Malnourished Children in Haiti”. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), severely malnourished children in Haiti, under five years old, could more than double within the year and some, if not treated in time, could die.
Recently in Haiti, plans to open new hospitals have stalled, while hospitals which treat COVID-19 cases have had to be turning away patients due to overcrowding. Furthermore, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has confirmed that Haiti has still not made the legal and administrative arrangements necessary to receive the vaccines.
Early this month, PAHO also warned that Haiti’s COVID-19 response needed to be significantly scaled up to deal with the sharp escalation of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths being experienced. As if all this was not enough, Haiti’s Ministry of Public Health has advised that the Brazilian and English strains of the virus have also been detected in the nation.