The aid group Doctors Without Borders said last Tuesday that the cholera crisis in Haiti was getting worse, for the most unnecessary and appalling of reasons: a lack of money and basic medical supplies.
The disease has killed 8,000 people and sickened 649,000 since October 2010. International efforts to defeat the epidemic include a 10-year, $2.2 billion plan for major investments in clean water, sanitation and medical infrastructure. But that is a project for the future, one that isn’t even funded yet. Doctors Without Borders says people are dying now, needlessly, because attention and money are running out. Aid groups are leaving.
Staff members at some treatment centers haven’t been paid in months, equipment is wearing out, and sanitary precautions are being abandoned. The death rate has reached an intolerably high 4 percent in some places, the group said. And the rainy season is about to make things much more difficult.