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Tag: Cholera

  • Zimbabwe cholera outbreak suspected of killing more than 150, leaving many terrified

    Zimbabwe cholera outbreak suspected of killing more than 150, leaving many terrified

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    HARARE, Zimbabwe — These days, Catherine Mangosho locks her 3-year-old grandson in the house for hours on end in an attempt to shield him from a deadly cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe.

    The virulent bacterial disease is killing the young and the old in the southern African country, with health authorities reporting more than 150 suspected deaths and over 8,000 suspected cases since February.

    Cholera has often broken out across Zimbabwe in recent years with deadly consequences and has surged and spread again over the last month, driven by the sometimes terrible sanitation conditions in poor, neglected townships and neighborhoods in the capital, Harare, and elsewhere.

    Many like Mangosho, 50, fear their family might be next.

    She points to a group of barefoot children playing street soccer near her house. The ball made from plastic bread wrappers frequently plunges into ponds of sewage. The children pick it out and continue their game.

    “Those boys are playing with fire,” she said. “We buried a boy from this area last week. He was playing soccer in the street just like these boys one day. He fell sick overnight and died at the hospital. They said it was cholera.”

    Since the start of the latest outbreak, Zimbabwe’s Health Ministry has recorded 8,087 suspected cholera cases and 1,241 laboratory confirmed cases. It said there have been 152 suspected cholera deaths and 51 laboratory confirmed deaths.

    The country of 15 million people has been recording more than 500 cases a week since late October, the highest rate since February, said the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The group made an emergency appeal this month.

    Cholera is a water-borne disease caused by ingesting contaminated food or water and can kill within hours if left untreated, yet it is usually easily treated by rehydrating patients if cases are caught in time.

    The World Health Organization has said that cholera cases in Africa are rising exponentially amid a global surge. The African continent accounted for 21% of cases and 80% of deaths across the globe from 2014 to 2021, according to the WHO.

    The outbreak in Zimbabwe is spreading from urban to rural areas and putting at risk over 10 million people, including more than 5 million children, said the Red Cross Federation. It said major causes were poor hygiene, but also a lack of awareness and religious practices that include self-proclaimed prophets ordering sect members to rely on prayer and items such as holy water rather than seek medical treatment.

    Cholera is now in all of the country’s 10 provinces, Health Minister Douglas Mombeshora said at a clinic in the hotspot township of Kuwadzana in Harare this weekend. At Kuwadzana Polyclinic, cholera patients lined up in a special tent set up for them and were given a cup of rehydrating sugar and salt solution on arrival.

    “We have had a flare-up in urban areas,” said Mombeshora, adding that seven of the 13 people who have died in Harare are from Kuwadzana. “We are approaching the rainy season and the conditions cause a scare for us. We have to take it as an emergency.”

    The conditions in areas like Kuwadzana and neighboring Glen View make them fertile ground for infections.

    At shopping centers bustling with activity, flies crawl over heaps of uncollected trash. Raw sewage from burst pipes flows in streets and sometimes in the yards of homes. Many people have dug trenches to direct the flow away from their houses.

    Long-running local government failures see many residents go for months without tap water, forcing them to dig shallow wells and boreholes that have also been contaminated by sewage.

    Joyleen Nyachuru, a water, sanitation and hygiene officer with the Community Water Alliance non-governmental organization, and also a resident of the Glen View township, said she fears a repeat of 2008, when more than 4,000 people died in Zimbabwe’s worst outbreak.

    “Some don’t even know the signs and symptoms of cholera, so people are just falling sick in their houses without knowing what exactly is happening to them. It’s terrifying,” said Nyachuru, who recently delivered a petition to council offices signed by dozens of residents demanding safe drinking water and an end to the dire, unhygienic conditions.

    In Glen View, Mangosho is living in daily fear. She lets her grandson out for only a short while to play while watching him closely.

    “The whole neighborhood has children who are sick. Some, including adults, are dying,” she said. “We are afraid.”

    ___

    AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

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  • Worst-ever cholera outbreak in Malawi kills more than 1,200, with

    Worst-ever cholera outbreak in Malawi kills more than 1,200, with

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    Malawi Cholera Deaths
    A cholera patient is seen inside an isolation ward at the Bwaila Hospital in Lilongwe central Malawi, Jan. 11, 2023.

    Thoko Chikondi/AP


    Brazzaville — The deadliest cholera outbreak in Malawi‘s history has killed at least 1,210 people, while vaccines remain scarce and several other African nations report outbreaks, the World Health Organization said Thursday. The southern African nation has been battling its worst cholera outbreak on record, with nearly 37,000 cases reported since March 2022.

    Confirmed cases have already been reported across the border in Mozambique, while the WHO said it assessed the current risk of spread inside Malawi and to other neighboring countries as “very high.”

    The WHO said in a statement that active transmission was now ongoing in 27 out of Malawi’s 29 districts, with the country seeing a 143-percent increase in the number of cases last month compared to December.

    “With a sharp increase of cases seen over the last month, fears are that the outbreak will continue to worsen without strong interventions,” WHO warned in a statement.

    But the UN health agency pointed out that the crisis in Malawi is occurring against a backdrop of surging cholera outbreaks worldwide, which have “constrained the availability of vaccines, tests and treatments.”

    Malawi Cholera
    Health workers treat cholera patients at the Bwaila Hospital in Lilongwe central Malawi on Jan. 11, 2023. 

    Thoko Chikondi / AP


    Some 80,000 cases were recorded on the African continent over the whole of 2022.

    “If the current fast-rising trend continues, it could surpass the number of cases recorded in 2021, the worst year for cholera in Africa in nearly a decade,” the WHO said.

    Since the outbreak began, Malawi has carried out two large vaccination campaigns, but due to limited supplies, has offered just one of the usually recommended two oral cholera vaccine doses.

    In November, it received the second batch of almost three million doses from the UN, and last month a health ministry spokesman told AFP all the doses had been used.

    The WHO said Thursday that 96.8 percent of the population “residing in communities with high risk and burden of cholera” had been reached.

    Beyond vaccination, the WHO said efforts were under way to improve sanitation and access to clean water, with house-to-house chlorination ongoing in affected communities and districts, among other interventions.

    Cholera, which causes diarrhea and vomiting, is contracted from a bacterium that is generally transmitted through contaminated food or water.

    WHO said there was a continued risk of further increases in the number of cases in the Malawi outbreak, and said there could also be more international spread.

    Malawi’s neighbor Zambia has also reported cases, according to the WHO. As have Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Somalia.

    The WHO said the current cholera outbreaks in Africa are occurring as the continent faces extreme weather events, conflicts, and as well as overstretched health services.

    Late last month, the UN health agency also warned that the risk from the global cholera outbreak was “very high” due to ongoing multiple outbreaks in many WHO regions.

    WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters Wednesday that there were currently 23 countries in the world experiencing cholera outbreaks, with a further 20 countries that share land borders with them at risk.

    “In total, more than one billion people around the world are directly at risk of cholera,” he warned.

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  • Passport rush blamed on US policy stalls adoptions in Haiti

    Passport rush blamed on US policy stalls adoptions in Haiti

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    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Dozens of children are stuck in orphanages across Haiti, unable to leave the increasingly volatile country and start new lives with adoptive parents because a U.S. policy change has unleashed a rush for passports at Haiti’s main immigration office.

    U.S. President Joe Biden announced last month that the U.S. will accept 30,000 people a month from Haiti, Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela if they pass a background check and have an eligible sponsor and a passport to travel.

    The ensuing demand for Haitian passports has overwhelmed Haiti’s passport office in the capital, Port-au-Prince, where people with appointments cannot squeeze through the aggressive crowd or secure new appointments.

    Meanwhile, adoptive parents say the U.S. State Department has declined to grant passport waivers as they worry their children will succumb to hunger, cholera or gang violence.

    “It’s infuriating,” said Bryan Hanlon, a postal inspector who lives with his wife in Washington.

    They became the legal parents of Peterson, 5, and Gina, 6, last year and fear they won’t be able to secure passports for the children and fly them out of Haiti, which has been in a downward spiral since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

    Last year, the number of reported kidnappings in Haiti soared to 1,359, more than double the previous year, and 2,183 killings were reported, up by a third from 2021, according to the United Nations. Gangs also are raping women and children at an alarming rate, including those as young as 10, officials say.

    The country also is fighting a deadly cholera outbreak and a spike in starvation.

    Last year, 5-year-old Peterson became malnourished and had to be taken to a clinic, where he was treated for a couple of months.

    Then in October, the siblings had to flee the orphanage with a caretaker as gangs raided the neighborhood, killing dozens of civilians and setting homes on fire. The violence that erupts as gangs fight over territory has left tens of thousands of Haitians homeless.

    “That was the worst day of our lives,” Hanlon said. “We didn’t know if they were alive or dead.”

    With their orphanage abandoned because of the violence, the children had been taken by one of their caretakers to her home in southern Haiti, where they have remained, he said.

    Hanlon said he and his wife send money to the caretaker, but that “some days, there is just no food to buy or no fuel to cook it.” Other times, she cannot leave the house to pick up the money because it’s too dangerous, he said.

    Brooke Baeth, an elementary school speech therapist in Minnesota, understands the fear and frustration. She and her husband became the legal parents of a 5-year-old girl in Haiti nearly a year ago, but they don’t know when they will be able to meet her.

    In late January, her daughter and caretakers flew from their orphanage in northern Haiti to Port-au-Prince only to encounter a huge crowd at the immigration office. Despite having an appointment, they could not get inside, nor could some of the office’s own employees, Baeth said.

    “It’s just devastating,” she said, adding that like the Hanlons, they haven’t been able to obtain a passport waiver from the State Department. “It feels like our voices are not being heard.”

    A spokesperson for the State Department said intercountry adoption is one of the agency’s highest priorities and that it uses all appropriate tools to identify and overcome barriers.

    “We understand that it is currently difficult for prospective adoptive parents to obtain a Haitian passport,” the spokesperson said. “We remain committed to helping prospective adoptive parents navigate the often-complicated journey of intercountry adoption. We will continue to engage with the Haitian government on this issue.”

    Hanlon shared email messages with The Associated Press in which the U.S. government denied his request for a waiver by noting that both Haiti’s immigration office and the Ministry of the Interior were open for business, and that passport waivers are for use only on a case-by-case basis and as a last resort.

    Ryan Hanlon, president and CEO of the U.S. National Council for Adoption who is not related to Bryan Hanlon, said in a phone interview that the State Department’s manual calls on officials to prioritize adoption cases.

    “Can we even say we prioritize adoption when we have legal options that we choose not to utilize?” he said. “It’s the safety of the children that’s the concern here.”

    Given the ongoing crush at Haiti’s main immigration office, government officials recently opened two makeshift offices in a gymnasium and a soccer field elsewhere in Port-au-Prince. They also implemented a schedule setting aside specific days for groups including women and the elderly. Saturdays have been reserved for children.

    Officials say they don’t know how many Haitian children are in this situation, but two of 11 U.S. agencies that are main providers of adoption services in Haiti say a dozen or more of their children are affected and the number has been rising. From 2016 to 2020, people adopted 827 children from Haiti, according to the most recent statistics from the State Department. Only 96 children were adopted in 2020, down from a high of 227 in 2017.

    At one adoption agency, Colorado-based A Love Beyond Borders, at least 13 children in Haiti have been adopted but have been unable to obtain passports amid a processing backlog that is growing every day, said Stephanie Thoet, the agency’s Haiti program coordinator.

    She noted that even Haiti’s Ministry of the Interior has been unable to access the passport office to manually deliver the files of adopted children and worries about officials being killed or kidnapped by gangs as they travel back and forth with paperwork that has taken years to complete.

    “I am terrified every time they go,” she said.

    At another agency, Utah-based Wasatch International Adoption, at least a dozen children who already have been adopted can’t obtain a passport, and the number is growing, said Chareyl Moyes, the agency’s Haiti program manager.

    “The situation is dire,” she said, adding that she worries about a child or caretaker being killed. “Do we want to wait until it’s at that point?”

    Baeth said it’s hard for her daughter to understand why it’s taking so long to be together. They tell her how much she means to them and send her images of the snow, prompting her to excitedly ask if she could eat it. The girl, who wants to be a unicorn rider when she grows up, has sent them videos of her doing cartwheels and somersaults.

    Hanlon said his daughter knows what is going on: “She understands enough to be frustrated.”

    He recalled how Gina was upset one day and told her caretaker: “I don’t want to talk to them in videos anymore. I want to talk to them in person.”

    His son, however, is younger.

    Hanlon said when the boy is told he can’t travel to certain parts of Haiti, he tells the other children not to worry, assuring them: “My dad’s like Superman. He’ll fly down and kill the bad guys.”

    Hanlon paused as his voice broke.

    “Some days, I feel like I’m letting him down.”

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  • African countries lack ‘immediate access’ to cholera vaccine

    African countries lack ‘immediate access’ to cholera vaccine

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    NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Africa’s public health agency says countries with deadly cholera outbreaks on the continent have no “immediate access” to vaccines amid a global supply shortage.

    The acting director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ahmed Ogwell, told journalists on Thursday that the agency is working with the World Health Organization and the vaccine alliance GAVI on ways to obtain more doses.

    The Africa CDC is also working with two local manufacturers to explore if their facilities can be repurposed to manufacture cholera vaccines, Ogwell said. He didn’t say which ones.

    WHO and its partners recommended in October that countries temporarily switch to using a single dose of the cholera vaccine instead of two because of the supply shortage as outbreaks of the water-borne disease surge globally. They said one dose of vaccine has proven effective in stopping outbreaks “even though evidence on the exact duration of protection is limited” and appears to be lower in children.

    WHO noted that Haiti and Syria also are trying to contain large outbreaks. WHO and partner agencies manage a stockpile of cholera vaccines that are dispensed free to countries that need them.

    Malawi in southern Africa especially is struggling with a cholera outbreak. The country has recorded 3,577 new cases including 111 deaths in the past week, Ogwell said. They make up the bulk of the new cholera cases on the continent.

    Since the beginning of 2023, there have been 27,300 new cases of cholera including 687 deaths in five African countries, Ogwell said.

    The WHO has said climate change could make cholera epidemics more common, as the bacteria that causes the disease can reproduce more quickly in warmer water.

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  • Malawi cholera outbreak death toll rises above 1,000

    Malawi cholera outbreak death toll rises above 1,000

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    Malawi’s cholera outbreak has claimed more than 1,000 lives, according to the country’s health minister, who warned that some cultural beliefs and hostility toward health workers were slowing efforts to curb infections.

    Cholera had killed 1,002 people as of Tuesday, while 1,115 people were hospitalized from the outbreak that started in March 2022, Minister of Health Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda said. It’s the country’s worst outbreak of the waterborne illness in two decades.

    The country of 20 million people recorded 12 deaths from 626 new cases in 24 hours, she said.

    Malawi Cholera
    Health workers treat cholera patients at the Bwaila Hospital in Lilongwe central Malawi on Jan. 11, 2023. 

    Thoko Chikondi / AP


    Frustration and suspicion over the rising cases resulted in weekend violence. Angry villagers beat up health workers and damaged a facility at the Nandumbo Health Centre in the Southern Region’s Balaka district.

    Residents accused health workers of denying them an opportunity to conduct dignified burials. They forced some health workers to vacate the facility, stoned a cholera isolation ward and forced the discharge of 22 cholera patients.

    Esnath Suwedi, vice-chairperson of the Nandumbo area’s development committee, a traditional local authority, said people thought the health workers were acting “mysteriously.”

    Suwedi said residents alleged the workers were using contaminated syringes to inject people. The Balaka district is one of the worst affected areas, recording 46 deaths from 1,450 cases in the outbreak.

    Cultural burial rites are also becoming a source of contention, Chiponda, the health minister, said during a daily briefing Tuesday.

    “For example, people who are dying of or who have died from cholera may be washed by family members, who then prepare funeral feasts for family and friends held very soon after death. Outbreaks of cholera commonly follow these feasts,” the minister said.


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  • UN aid chief: Gangs control about 60% of Haiti’s capital

    UN aid chief: Gangs control about 60% of Haiti’s capital

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    UNITED NATIONS — Close to 60% of Haiti’s capital is dominated by gangs whose violence and sexual attacks have caused thousands to flee their homes, the U.N. humanitarian chief in the Caribbean nation said Thursday.

    Ulrika Richardson said that has left nearly 20,000 people in the capital facing “catastrophic famine-like conditions” as a cholera outbreak spreads throughout Haiti.

    Richardson painted a grim picture of a country in a downward spiral, with half its population in urgent need of food assistance as the number of cholera deaths has risen to 283. She said close to 12,000 people have been hospitalized with the disease since Oct. 2, and there are now a total of more than 14,000 suspected cholera cases in eight of the country’s 10 regions.

    She said all but 1,000 of the 20,000 Haitians facing starvation are in the capital, Port-au-Prince, mainly in the Cite Soleil slum controlled by the gangs. Richardson said insecurity has led to “massive displacement,” especially in the capital, where 155,000 people have fled their homes.

    She said at a news conference that the gangs are using “very terrifying levels of sexual violence as a weapon” to keep people under control, instill fear and punishment.

    She said gang battles over territory and their criminal actions are tearing society apart and escalating insecurity.

    Political instability has simmered in Haiti since last year’s still-unsolved assassination of President Jovenal Moïse, who had faced protests calling for his resignation over corruption charges.

    Daily life in Haiti began to spin out of control in September just hours after Prime Minister Ariel Henry said fuel subsidies would be eliminated, causing prices to double. A gang led by Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, a former police officer, blocked the Varreux fuel terminal, setting off a fuel crisis.

    The U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on Cherizier on Oct. 21, and he announced on Nov. 6 that his G9 gang federation was lifting the blockade.

    But despite the availability of fuel, Richardson said, the humanitarian, security and political situation is worsening, saying that “everyone is affected by the violence.”

    Hentry and Haiti’s Council of Ministers sent an urgent appeal Oct. 7 calling for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to dispatch an international military force to tackle Haiti’s violence and alleviate its humanitarian crisis.

    Richardson said U.N. Security Council members have held intensive discussions since then focusing on the “potential leadership and potential composition of such a force,” but so far there has been no decision.

    “What is very important here is that the gang violence needs to be addressed,” she said.

    While discussions are continuing in the Security Council, Richardson said the United Nations and a lot of countries are helping Haiti’s national police force — “and they need a lot of support in terms of equipment and training.”

    In mid-November, the U.N. launched an emergency appeal for $145 million to respond to Haiti’s cholera outbreak and rising hunger, but so far it has received just $23.5 million, she said.

    Richardson said the U.N. will be appealing for $719 million for Haiti for 2023, double the amount this year, because of the dramatic deterioration of the humanitarian situation.

    On a positive note, she said, schools are being reopened at the level of about 53% throughout the country, mainly in the south. Many of the 4 million children in Haiti haven’t had any proper education since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020, she said.

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  • Cholera overwhelms Haiti as cases, deaths spike amid crisis

    Cholera overwhelms Haiti as cases, deaths spike amid crisis

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    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The sun shone down on Stanley Joliva as medical staff at an open-air clinic hovered around him, pumping air into his lungs and giving him chest compressions until he died.

    Nearby, his mother watched.

    “Only God knows my pain,” said Viliene Enfant.

    Less than an hour later, the body of her 22-year-old son lay on the floor wrapped in a white plastic bag with the date of his death scrawled on top. 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.

    Sweat gathered on the foreheads of staff at a Doctors Without Borders treatment center in the capital of Port-au-Prince where some 100 patients arrive every day and at least 20 have died. 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.

    Dozens of patients sat on white buckets or lay on stretchers as IV lines ran up to bags of rehydrating fluids that gleamed in the sun. So far this month, Doctors Without Borders has treated some 1,800 patients at their four centers in Port-au-Prince.

    Across Haiti, many patients are dying because say they’re unable to reach a hospital in time, health officials say. A spike in gang violence has made it unsafe for people to leave their communities and a lack of fuel has shut down public transportation, gas stations and other key businesses including water supply companies.

    Enfant sat next to her son’s body as she recalled how Joliva told her he was feeling sick earlier this week. 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.

    Enfant insisted that her sons buy water to wash clothes and add chlorine if they were going to drink it. As Joliva grew sicker, Enfant tried to care for him on her own.

    “I told him, ‘Honey, you need to drink the tea,’” she recalled. “He said again, ‘I feel weak.’ He also said, ‘I am not able to stand up.’”

    Cholera is a bacteria that sickens people who swallow contaminated food or water, and it can cause severe vomiting and diarrhea, in some cases leading to death.

    Haiti’s first major brush with cholera occurred more than a decade ago when U.N. peacekeepers introduced the bacteria into the country’s biggest river via sewage runoff at their base. Nearly 10,000 people died and thousands of others were sickened.

    The cases eventually dwindled to the point where the World Health Organization was expected to declare Haiti cholera-free this year.

    But on Oct. 2, Haitian officials announced that cholera had returned.

    At least 40 deaths and 1,700 suspected cases have been reported, but officials believe the numbers are much higher, especially in crowded and unsanitary slums and government shelters where thousands of Haitians live.

    Worsening the situation is a lack of fuel and water that began to dwindle last month when one of Haiti’s most powerful gangs surrounded a key fuel terminal and demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Gas stations and businesses including water companies have closed, forcing an increasing number of people to rely on untreated water.

    Shela Jeune, a 21-year-old hot dog vendor whose 2-year-old son has cholera, said she buys small bags of water for her family but doesn’t know if it’s treated. She carried him to the hospital where he remains on IV fluids.

    “Everything I give him to eat, he just throws it up,” she said.

    Jeune was among dozens of mothers seeking treatment for their children on a recent morning.

    Lauriol Chantal, 43, recounted a similar story. Her 15-year-old son would vomit as soon as he finished eating, prompting her to rush him to the treatment center.

    While at the center, her son, Alexandro François, told her he felt hot.

    “He said to me … ’Mama, could you take me outside to wash me or pour water over my head?’” she said.

    She obliged, but suddenly, he collapsed in her arms. The staff ran over to help.

    Children younger than age 14 make up half of cholera cases in Haiti, according to UNICEF, with officials warning that growing cases of severe malnutrition also make children more vulnerable to illness.

    Haiti’s poverty also has worsened the situation.

    “When you are unable to get safe drinking water by tap in your own home, when you don’t have soap or water purifying tablets and you have no access to health services, you may not survive cholera or other waterborne diseases,” said Bruno Maes, Haiti’s UNICEF representative.

    Perpety Juste, a 62-year-old grandmother, said one of her three grandchildren became ill this week as she fretted about how their situation might have led to her sickness.

    “We spent a lot of days without food, I cannot lie,” she said. “Nobody in my house has a job.”

    Juste, who lives with her husband, five children and three grandchildren, said she used to work as a house cleaner until the homeowners fled Haiti.

    The increasing demand for help is squeezing Doctors Without Borders and others as they struggle to care for patients with limited fuel.

    “It’s a nightmare for the population, and also for us,” said Jean-Marc Biquet, a project coordinator with the organization. “We have two more weeks of fuel.”

    Life is paralyzed for many Haitians, including Enfant, as she mourned her son’s death. She wants to bury him in her southern coastal hometown of Les Cayes, but cannot afford the 55,000 gourdes ($430) it would cost to transport his body.

    Enfant then fell quiet and gazed into the distance as she continued to sit next to her son’s body — too stunned, she said, to stand up.

    ———

    Associated Press writer Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this report.

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  • UN: Syria facing `acute violence’ and worst economic crisis

    UN: Syria facing `acute violence’ and worst economic crisis

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    UNITED NATIONS — Syria is facing “acute violence,” the worst economic crisis since the war began in 2011, and a rapidly spreading cholera outbreak with more that 24,000 suspected cases reported throughout the country and at least 80 deaths, U.N. officials said Tuesday.

    U.N. special envoy Geir Pedersen told the U.N. Security Council that the conflict remains “very active” across the country despite the “strategic stalemate” that has blocked efforts to launch a political process between the government and opposition.

    He pointed to infighting between armed opposition groups in Afrin in northern Aleppo province in recent weeks, pro-government airstrikes in the northwest, violence in the northeast, security incidents in the southwest, airstrikes attributed to Israel on airports in Damascus and Aleppo, and discovery in the northeast of one of the largest Islamic State arms caches since its so-called caliphate fell in 2017.

    In recent weeks, Pedersen said, the Syrian currency, the pound, “lost a tremendous amount of its value … which in turn saw food and fuel prices jump to even higher record prices.” And he warned the economic crisis “will only get worst for the vast majority” with winter approaching and additional funding needed urgently.

    Reena Ghelani, director of operations for the U.N. humanitarian office, told the council that “communities in Syria are caught in the middle of a spiraling security, public health and economic crisis” that has left many “struggling to survive.”

    She said the cholera outbreak is made worse by Syria’s severe water shortage, and compounded by insufficient and poorly distributed rainfall in many places, severe drought-like conditions, low water levels in the Euphrates River and damaged water infrastructure.

    “The crisis is likely to get even worse: The outlook from now to December suggests an increased probability for below-normal precipitation and above-normal temperatures,” Ghelani said. “If this materializes, it will further exacerbate an already dire water crisis.”

    She said a three-month plan to respond to the cholera outbreak, coordinated by the U.N., needs $34.4 million to assist 5 million people with water, sanitation and hygiene needs and 162,000 with health services. The U.N. will make available about $10 million but “much more is needed,” she said.

    The water scarcity has also impacted crops with the lowest wheat harvest since the war began as well as the livelihoods of farmers under threat, Ghelani said.

    In addition, the rate of food insecurity “is spiraling out of control,” malnutrition rates are rising, and “Syrians today can afford only 15% of the food they were able to purchase three years ago,” she said.

    With winter approaching in weeks, Ghelani said, the number of people across the country needing assistance to survive the cold has increased 30% from last year, including some 2 million in the northwest, mostly women and children living in camps with limited or no access to heating, electricity, water or sewage disposal.

    Humanitarian organizations have launched winterization efforts, but the program is “grossly underfunded,” Grelani said, pointing to the sector that provides shelter, blankets, heating, fuel, winter clothes and other non-food items which is only 10% funded.

    A 2012 U.N. road map to peace in Syria approved by representatives of the United Nations, Arab League, European Union, Turkey and all five permanent Security Council members calls for the drafting of a new constitution and ends with U.N.-supervised elections with all Syrians, including members of the diaspora, eligible to participate.

    At a Russia-hosted Syrian peace conference in January 2018, an agreement was reached to form a 150-member committee to draft a new constitution. It took until September 2019 for the committee to be formed, and after eight rounds of talks little progress has been achieved so far.

    U.N. envoy Pedersen said he continues “to work to unblock obstacles to reconvening the constitutional committee” and is pushing key parties “to engage on step-for-step confidence building measures to help advance” the road map.

    Russia’s military support for Syria changed the trajectory of the Syrian conflict. The EU imposed sanctions on Russia after it annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and stepped up sanctions after President Vladimir Putin’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

    Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky accused the West of supporting “terrorists” from al-Qaida linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham who are trying to broaden their area of control beyond northwestern Idlib and accused the United States of encouraging “Kurdish separatism.”

    Tensions in northern Syria between U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces and Turkish-backed opposition gunmen.

    U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood responded saying “the United States is in Syria for the sole purpose of enabling the ongoing campaign against ISIS,” an acronym for the Islamic State extremist group.

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  • “Unprecedented rise in cholera outbreaks” forces “last-resort decision” on vaccine policy

    “Unprecedented rise in cholera outbreaks” forces “last-resort decision” on vaccine policy

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    Geneva — A shortage of cholera vaccines has forced a temporary shift to a one-dose strategy, from the usual two, in campaigns to fight a swelling number of outbreaks, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. The United Nations health agency said the “strained global supply of cholera vaccines” had pushed the International Coordinating Group (ICG), which manages emergency supplies of vaccines, to suspend the two-dose regimen.

    “The pivot in strategy will allow for the doses to be used in more countries, at a time of unprecedented rise in cholera outbreaks worldwide,” WHO said in a statement.

    Cholera is an acute diarrheal infection in the small intestine causing sometimes fatal dehydration. It is generally contracted from food or water contaminated with vibrio cholera bacteria.

    Cholera is spreading fast

    WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pointed out to reporters that “29 countries have reported outbreaks this year, including 13 countries that did not have outbreaks last year.”

    That compares with the fewer than 20 nations that reported such outbreaks in total over the previous five years.

    “The global trend is moving towards more numerous, more widespread and more severe outbreaks, due to floods, droughts, conflict, population movements and other factors that limit access to clean water and raise the risk of cholera outbreaks,” Wednesday’s statement said.

    Kenya has become the latest nation to declare a cholera outbreak, with officials there saying there were at least 61 confirmed cases as of Thursday.

    Haiti Cholera
    A child suffering cholera symptoms is treated at a clinic run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, October 7, 2022.

    Odelyn Joseph/AP


    In Haiti, where a political and security crisis has allowed one of the world’s most dangerous cholera outbreaks to flourish, health ministry figures obtained by AFP on Tuesday confirmed there were at least 606 suspected and 66 confirmed cases.

    That constitutes an increase of 222 new suspected cases between October 13 and 17 in an outbreak already blamed for at least 22 deaths. Suspected cases have also been recorded in new regions of the impoverished Caribbean nation.

    A “last-resort decision”

    WHO and other members of the ICG — the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity, the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF and the Red Cross — highlighted that a one-dose strategy for cholera vaccines had been proven to be effective in response to outbreaks. But they warned that there was only limited evidence on the exact duration of protection, which appeared to be much lower, especially in children.

    With two doses, when the second dose is given within six months of the first, immunity against infection lasts for three years.

    “The benefit of supplying one dose still outweighs no doses,” the statement said, warning that the current supply of cholera vaccines was “extremely limited.”

    A student receives an oral cholera vaccine from a health
    A student receives an oral cholera vaccine dose from a health worker during a vaccination campaign in Dhaka, Bangladesh, June 6, 2022. 

    Sazzad Hossain/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty


    ICG manages a global stockpile of oral cholera vaccines, but of the 36 million doses forecast to be produced this year, 24 million have already been shipped for preventive and reactive campaigns.

    And an additional eight million doses have been approved by ICG for a second round of emergency vaccination in four countries.

    Tedros said the strategy shift was “clearly less than ideal and rationing must only be a temporary solution.”

    Oral cholera vaccine is seen during the vaccination campaign
    Oral cholera vaccine doses are seen during a vaccination campaign in Dhaka, Bangladesh, June 8, 2022.

    Sazzad Hossain/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty


    One reason for the growing concern about the situation is that the maker of one of only two cholera vaccines approved for use in humanitarian emergencies, Shanchol, an Indian subsidiary of French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, has said it will halt production by the end of the year. But a Sanofi spokesman stressed that the vaccine shortage was due to an upsurge in cases, “and not to a halt in vaccine production by Sanofi, because we are continuing to deliver doses of Shanchol.”

    The spokesman pointed out that the company had announced its decision to halt production in 2020, due to the low number of doses it was producing, and because other actors had announced plans to increase capacity.

    MSF said the critical global shortage of cholera vaccines had left it and other ICG members with no choice but to support the “very difficult decision of reducing the doses people will receive from two to one.”

    “It is incredibly frustrating to face this situation as cholera surges in more than 20 countries, including in places already devastated by crisis like Haiti, Nigeria, and Syria,” MSF international medical coordinator Daniela Garone said. “This last-resort decision is the way to avoid making the impossible choice of sending doses to one country over another.”

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  • UN mulls quick foreign troop deployment to ease Haiti crisis

    UN mulls quick foreign troop deployment to ease Haiti crisis

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    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The United Nations Security Council on Monday was evaluating options including the immediate activation of foreign troops to help free Haiti from the grip of gangs that has caused a scarcity of fuel, water and other basic supplies.

    Such a force would “remove the threat posed by armed gangs and provide immediate protection to critical infrastructure and services,” as well as secure the “free movement of water, fuel, food and medical supplies from main ports and airports to communities and health care facilities,” according to a letter U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres submitted to the council on Sunday.

    The letter, which was seen by The Associated Press and has not been made public, said one or several member states would deploy the force to help Haiti’s National Police.

    It also states the secretary-general may deploy “additional U.N. capacities to support a ceasefire or humanitarian arrangements.”

    However, the letter notes that “a return to a more robust United Nations engagement in the form of peacekeeping remains a last resort if no decisive action is urgently taken by the international community in line with the outlined options and national law enforcement capacity proves unable to reverse the deteriorating security situation.”

    The letter was submitted after Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry and 18 high-ranking officials requested from international partners “the immediate deployment of a specialized armed force, in sufficient quantity,” to stop the “criminal actions” of armed gangs across the country.

    The request comes nearly a month after one of Haiti’s most powerful gangs seized control of a key fuel terminal in the capital of Port-au-Prince, where some 10 million gallons of diesel and gasoline and more than 800,000 gallons of kerosene are stored.

    Tens of thousands of demonstrators also have barricaded streets in Port-au-Prince and other major cities in recent weeks, preventing the flow of goods and traffic as part of an ongoing protest against a spike in the prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene.

    Gas stations and schools are closed, while banks and grocery stores are operating on a limited schedule.

    Regis Wilguens, a 52-year-old businessman, said he doesn’t believe the anticipated arrival of foreign troops would change anything.

    “The results are always the same,” he said. “The social problems and economic problems have never been solved.”

    Protesters are demanding the resignation of Henry, who announced in early September that his administration could no longer afford to subsidize fuel.

    The deepening paralysis has caused supplies of fuel, water and other basic goods to dwindle amid a cholera outbreak that has killed several people and sickened dozens of others, with health officials warning that the situation could worsen.

    On Sunday, Haitian senators signed a document demanding that Henry’s “de facto government” defer its request for deployment of foreign troops, saying it is illegal under local laws.

    A spokesman for Henry could not be reached for comment.

    The possible presence of international armed forces is something that bothers Georges Ubin, a 44-year-old accountant, who said he knows of people who have been victimized by peacekeepers and believes foreign intervention would not improve things.

    “The foreign troops are not going to solve the major problems that Haiti has,” he said. “These are problems that have been around since I was born. It never gets better.”

    Haitian officials have not specified what kind of armed forces they’re seeking, with many local leaders rejecting the idea of U.N. peacekeepers, noting that they’ve been accused of sexual assault and of sparking a cholera epidemic that killed nearly 10,000 people during their a 13-year mission in Haiti that ended five years ago.

    The letter that the U.N. secretary-general submitted Sunday suggests that the rapid action force be phased out as Haitian police regain control of infrastructure, and that two options could follow: member states establish an international police task force to help and advise local officers or create a special force to help tackle gangs “including through joint strike, isolation and containment operations across the country.”

    The letter notes that if member states do not “step forward with bilateral support and financing,” the U.N. operation may be an alternative.

    “However, as indicated, a return to U.N. peacekeeping was not the preferred option of the authorities,” it states.

    The letter also says the Security Council could decide to strengthen the police component of the current United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti known as BINUH, and to call on member states to provide additional equipment and training to local police, which are understaffed and lack resources. Only about a third of some 13,000 are operational in a country of more than 11 million people.

    The secretary-general said the issue is a matter of urgency, noting Haiti “is facing an outbreak of cholera amid a dramatic deterioration in security that has paralyzed the country.”

    On Monday, Global Affairs Canada said it was extremely concerned about the impact of armed gang activity that has reached “an unprecedented level.”

    “We are carefully considering Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s appeal in consultation with Haitian authorities and our international partners,” the department said.

    It added that it supports targeted sanctions to stop armed gangs and those who finance violence and insecurity in Haiti.

    The U.S. Embassy in Haiti has granted temporarily leave to personnel and urged U.S. citizens to immediately leave the country.

    As U.N. officials and member states mull Haiti’s request, some people including 35-year-old Allens Hemest hope to see troops arrive soon. He is unemployed. Until recently, he worked at a factory that produced plastic cups but shut down amid the crisis.

    “The whole city is under siege,” he said. “If this is going to bring peace, I’m all for it. We can’t continue living like this.”

    ———

    Associated Press reporters Evens Sanon in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed.

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  • UN ponders rapid armed force to help end Haiti’s crisis

    UN ponders rapid armed force to help end Haiti’s crisis

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    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres submitted a letter to the Security Council on Sunday proposing the immediate activation of a rapid action force following a plea for help from Haiti as gangs and protesters paralyze the country.

    The letter, which was seen by The Associated Press but has not been made public, said the rapid action force would be deployed by one or several member states to help Haiti’s National Police. That force would “remove the threat posed by armed gangs and provide immediate protection to critical infrastructure and services,” as well as secure the “free movement of water, fuel, food and medical supplies from main ports and airports to communities and health care facilities.”

    The letter also states the secretary-general may deploy “additional U.N. capacities to support a ceasefire or humanitarian arrangements.”

    However, the letter notes that “a return to a more robust United Nations engagement in the form of peacekeeping remains a last resort if no decisive action is urgently taken by the international community in line with the outlined options and national law enforcement capacity proves unable to reverse the deteriorating security situation.”

    The letter suggests that the rapid action force be phased out as Haitian police regain control of infrastructure, and that two options could follow: member states establish an international police task force to help and advise local officers or create a special force to help tackle gangs “including through joint strike, isolation and containment operations across the country.”

    The letter notes that if member states do not “step forward with bilateral support and financing,” the U.N. operation may be an alternative.

    “However, as indicated, a return to U.N. peacekeeping was not the preferred option of the authorities,” it states.

    The letter also says the Security Council could decide to strengthen the police component of the current United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti known as BINUH, and to call on member states to provide additional equipment and training to local police, which are understaffed and lack resources. Only about a third of some 13,000 are operational in a country of more than 11 million people.

    The secretary-general said the issue is a matter of urgency, noting Haiti “is facing an outbreak of cholera amid a dramatic deterioration in security that has paralyzed the country.”

    On Friday, Haiti’s government published an official document signed by Prime Minister Ariel Henry and 18 top-ranking officials requesting from international partners “the immediate deployment of a specialized armed force, in sufficient quantity,” to stop the “criminal actions” of armed gangs across the country.

    The request comes nearly a month after one of Haiti’s most powerful gangs surrounded a key fuel terminal in the capital of Port-au-Prince, preventing the distribution of some 10 million gallons of diesel and gasoline and more than 800,000 gallons of kerosene stored on site.

    Tens of thousands of demonstrators also have blocked streets in Port-au-Prince and other major cities in recent weeks, preventing the flow of traffic including water trucks and ambulances, as part of an ongoing protest against a spike in the prices of gasoline, diesel and kerosene.

    Gas stations and schools are closed, while banks and grocery stores are operating on a limited schedule.

    Protesters are demanding the resignation of Henry, who announced in early September that his administration could no longer afford to subsidize fuel.

    The deepening paralysis has caused supplies of fuel, water and other basic goods to dwindle amid a cholera outbreak that has killed several people and sickened dozens of others, with health officials warning that the situation could worsen amid a lack of potable water and cramped living conditions. More than 150 suspected cases have been reported, with the U.N. warning that the outbreak is spreading beyond Port-au-Prince.

    The outbreak comes as UNICEF warns that three-fourths of major hospitals across Haiti are unable to provide critical service “due to the fuel crisis, insecurity and looting.”

    The U.S. Embassy has granted temporarily leave to personnel and urged U.S. citizens to immediately leave Haiti.

    Haitian officials have not specified what kind of armed forces they’re seeking, with many local leaders rejecting the idea of U.N. peacekeepers, noting that they’ve been accused of sexual assault and of sparking a cholera epidemic that killed nearly 10,000 people during their a 13-year mission in Haiti that ended five years ago.

    A Brazilian general and former U.N. peace mission leader who declined to be identified because he is still involved with the U.N. told The Associated Press this weekend that any peacekeeping mission would be established following a decision by the Security Council if it believes there’s a risk to international security.

    The U.N. would send a team for evaluation, and then the Security Council would decide if money is available and which countries would be available for volunteering. He noted that a military mission could cost between 600 to 800 million dollars and would count with 7,000 military components, plus police and civil components.

    “It is an ongoing crisis, which makes it difficult for short term solutions,” he said. “There needs to be international help, no doubt about that.”

    ———

    Associated Press reporter Carla Bridi in Brasilia, Brazil contributed.

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  • Care for Life: From New York to Switzerland, Children Are Helping Save Lives After African Hurricane

    Care for Life: From New York to Switzerland, Children Are Helping Save Lives After African Hurricane

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    All around the world, children are raising money for Care for Life’s work in Mozambique

    Press Release
    –


    updated: Apr 29, 2019


    MESA, Ariz., April 29, 2019 (Newswire.com)
    –
    ​By selling muffins, cake and play dough, two little girls from different sides of the world raised hundreds of dollars to help those who are suffering from the devastation of Hurricane Idai in Mozambique. Care for Life, a non-profit based in Arizona, has been working in Mozambique for almost 20 years. With casualties still being recorded and hundreds without power, water or food, every dollar donated helps Care for Life’s emergency relief efforts tremendously.

    Emergency donations are being accepted on www.careforlife.org. 

    Six-year-old Zara, who lives in Manhattan, New York, worked hard to raise money to help the victims of Hurricane Idai. This natural disaster is one of the worst weather events ever to occur in Mozambique. It is estimated that 90 percent of the city has been destroyed. Because of Zara, citizens in Mozambique will receive life-saving aid.

    “My friends and I heard about the cyclone and wanted to help. We decided to run a bake sale on our street in Manhattan. We hope this money helps,” said young Zara. 

    On the other side of the world, in Switzerland, Annina also raised money to help those in Mozambique. Annina sold slime, play dough and cake. By doing something small, these girls will make a huge difference to those in Mozambique. They took a few hours out of their day to help provide life-saving aid to others. To contribute like Zara and Annina, donations can be made at www.careforlife.org as well as https://www.facebook.com/careforlife.org/.

    Care for Life has 30 staff members on the ground ready to distribute aid. Monetary donations are most needed and will be used directly for relief efforts designed to prevent any further loss of life. 

    About Care for Life

    Care for Life is a global non-profit organization operating with a  comprehensive approach to ending poverty in a sustainable way by preserving the family while encouraging and enabling the principles of self-reliance. Care for Life operates in Mozambique, Africa. Donations to Care for Life can be made at www.careforlife.org.

    For more information:

    Glen Galatan, Marketing & Funding Manager 
    Care for Life 
    3850 E. Baseline Rd., Ste 114 Mesa, AZ 85206-4403
    480-696-0418
    glen@careforlife.com
    www.careforlife.org

    Source: Care for Life

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  • Arizona Non-Profit Has ‘Boots on the Ground’ in Mozambique to Assist in Hurricane Idai Relief – Two Million People Affected

    Arizona Non-Profit Has ‘Boots on the Ground’ in Mozambique to Assist in Hurricane Idai Relief – Two Million People Affected

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    Press Release
    –


    updated: Mar 29, 2019


    MESA, Ariz., March 28, 2019 (Newswire.com)
    –
    ​Care For Life, an Arizona-based anti-poverty charity working in Mozambique, is pleading with the public for donations to save the lives of those endangered by Hurricane Idai. Emergency donations are being taken on www.CareForLife.org. 

    An estimated 1,000 people are dead after the hurricane made landfall. Much of the country is still under water and the total body count still not known. Flooding and winds as high as 106 miles per hour destroyed over 90 percent of the infrastructure and homes in Mozambique. Food is scarce because almost all crops have been destroyed. The hospitals are far past capacity and contaminated water is spreading cholera. Standing water greatly increases concerns of malaria.

    “We are very lucky to have a staff made up of Mozambique citizens in the affected area,” said Care for Life President Linda Harper. “Now that our team has gotten themselves and their families in a safe place, we are ready to start helping others. Money is our biggest need. This will allow us to arrange transportation and purchase supplies such as food and all the other basics the people of Mozambique need right now. As more funding comes in, it will go directly to help the people in the center of this disaster. Those who want to help can go to our website.” 

    Care For Life has 30 staff members on the ground ready to distribute aid. Monetary donations are most needed and will be used directly for relief efforts designed to prevent any further loss of life. Donations can be made at www.CareForLife.org as well as https://www.facebook.com/careforlife.org/.

    About Care for Life

    Care for Life is a global non-profit organization operating with a comprehensive approach to ending poverty in a sustainable way by preserving the family while encouraging and enabling the principles of self-reliance. Care for Life operates in Mozambique, Africa. Donations to Care for Life can be made at www.CareForLife.org.

    For more information:

    Glen Galatan, Marketing & Funding Manager
    ​Care for Life 
    3850 E. Baseline Rd., Ste 114, Mesa, AZ 85206-4403
    480-696-0418
    ​glen@careforlife.org
    www.careforlife.org

    Source: Care for Life

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