Haiti death toll reaches 150,000; world makes 10-year pledge - Summary

Tue, 26 Jan 2010

Port-au-Prince, Haiti - The Haitian government has increased the confirmed earthquake death toll to 150,000 as it moved to fence off part of the Port-au-Prince center to be cleared for rebuilding. Two weeks after the fierce earthquake hit, the odor of decaying bodies hangs heavy, from the massive burial sites and from those still in the lethal embrace of collapsed buildings.

From the ruins of the children's hospital, Nos Petits Freres et Soeurs (Little Brothers and Sisters,) only three bodies were retrieved, a Lebanese rescue worker said.

"There are more than 300 children's bodies in there. The three we recovered have no one to bury them. Who has time for that now?" he said.

US health officials Tuesday said they were launching special assessment systems to rapidly identify disease outbreaks in the refugee camps. Rapid assessments would be done "in the coming days," said Peter Bloland of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC.)

"We are working very hard to stand up and implement the public health surveillance system ... to detect the emergence of potential outbreaks of infectious disease that might arise from the breakdown in the public health system," Bloland said.

He noted that even before the earthquake, Haiti suffered from extensive problems with malaria, dengue fever and respiratory and diarrhea diseases.

The Haitian health ministry has announced a tetanus immunization program, Bloland said. It was also looking at marshaling a vaccination program against normal childhood diseases.

Even while international groups urgently moved food, water and shelter to 3 million people affected by the quake, the Haitian government and international community turned their sites to rebuilding.

Twenty countries including the United States, France and Canada pledged in Montreal on Monday to "stand with Haiti for the long term." The group said a 10-year commitment was "essential."

Figures ranging from 3 billion to 10 billion dollars have been mentioned, but only a few financial commitments were made for Haiti's reconstruction in Montreal. The United Nations said Tuesday it will host a donors' conference in late March in New York, after conducting a needs assessment in February.

The UN said it had received nearly half of its call for 575 million dollars in emergency relief.

Direct help from abroad came even from such impoverished nations as Nicaragua, which has sent its third load of material aid and now has 44 health workers there, the government said in Managua.

The Haitian government plans to block off portions of the ruined capital Port-au-Prince to allow the remaining bodies and debris to be cleared away for rebuilding.

To accommodate up to 1 million homeless, it has asked UN peacekeepers to start levelling areas outside the capital for 200,000 tents.

In other developments:

- The World Food Program (WFP) estimated it has distributed 5 million meals to 300,000 people. WFP head Josette Sheeran said it would have to feed 2 million people for at least 12 months. She called for contributions of ready-to-eat meals from worldwide military forces. High protein biscuits are also in demand, since cooking is very difficult in a world robbed of pots, water and stoves.

- WFP has prioritized aid for women and children. "We were very concerned that those who need food the worst will be overrun: women and children," Sheeran said.

Sometimes stronger men elbow in, or riots occur, slowing down food deliveries. "Our biggest problem is ... that we don't have enough security units," said Lieutenant Colonel Fernando Pereyra of the MINUSTAH peacekeeping force, which hands out supplies. The 20,000 US military personnel on the ground and offshore are to aid in providing security.

- Doctors Without Borders says its inflatable field hospital program is a big hit with Haitians, because they can get treatment without the fear of walls tumbling around them in the aftershocks.

Veronica Chesa, a nurse working with the group, said the patients slept better in the inflatables: "I found out that fewer patients were asking for sleeping pills," she was quoted as saying in the group's press statement.

- The textiles factory owned by Haitian industrialist Charles Baker is set to get back to work in the coming days, said Baker, 55, a presidential candidate four years ago. His factory buildings are still standing, only the office space at the front was damaged. He expected 600 of his 750 workers to return to work.

"We can start anew. We are going to make it," Baker says.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/305978,haiti-death-toll-reaches-150000-world-makes-10-year-pledge--summary.html.