By Henry Beaucejour From Caribbean News Now

Among all the countries in the Americas, Haiti is one of the very poorest. This country has approximately ten million inhabitants, of which 75% exist on less than two dollars per day. This is presenting this people with extraordinary challenges, especially when it comes to sudden sickness because this people cannot even afford the transportation to get to a local clinic and therefore it is difficult for them to gain access to medication and other healthcare systems.

Most of the healthcare in this country comes from a variety of foreign nongovernmental organizations and this means that Haiti depends very heavily on international donations for their medical care system. In many cases, medical care may simply not be available when it is critically needed, which results in a whole lot of unnecessary pain and suffering and sometimes even death.

As we all know, healthcare is the last thing on your mind when you are healthy and young but that good fortune sometimes doesn’t last and then many problems can be encountered for which there simply may not be an effective solution.

Of all the countries in the Americas region, Haiti has the lowest levels of fresh drinking water, which makes sanitation difficult and therefore cholera especially, which is a waterborne disease, is very prevalent here. Haiti, according to available statistics, is by far the country that has the largest cholera epidemic. Since 2010, over 8,000 people have died and a further 700,000 people have become sick because of cholera in this region.

According to research that has been done in the region, an estimated 800,000 Haitians will require some form of humanitarian aid, which will include healthy food sources, in order to help these people to fight against hunger, malnutrition and other things. They will also need shelters and they will have to be educated regarding anti-cholera initiatives in order to prepare the people better for future situations.

International donors have pledged over $2 billion over the next decade in order to help eliminate the cholera epidemic. A serious attempt will be made to improve sanitation, access to drinking water and better medical infrastructure.

The January 2010 earthquake has done tremendous damage in the region and there are still over 170,000 people living in temporary tent camps where there are no modern conveniences such as drinking water and sanitation and this is significantly contributing to the problems and the suffering that are facing this people.

Conditions remain extremely bad in this country and apparently 25% of all children between the ages of six and six months frequently experience chronic malnutrition, which is adding to the high mortality rate among children five and younger in this country.

Significantly more foreign aid will be required in order to effectively deal with the problems in this beautiful country. It is tragic that one country should suffer so many hardships and should be deprived of things that people in other countries take for granted. It is young children especially, who do not yet understand the injustices to which they are exposed, who should be mourned by mothers all over the world.

IMAGE: Henry Beaucejour is the CEO of Sanftec Datacenter, founder-editor of Haititechews, digital innovation strategist, senior business and technology advisor and a contributor to major news networks

For more on this story go to: http://www.caribbeannewsnow.com/headline-Commentary%3A-Haiti’s-symptoms-of-broken-healthcare-systems-30661.html