BOGOTA, Colombia — An intensive effort is under way in Haiti to immunize approximately 1.5 million Haitians amid concerns of increased risks of disease outbreaks after last month’s catastrophic earthquake, AlertNet reported Feb. 18.
The magnitude 7.0 quake left more than 1 million people homeless and approximately 500,000 are living in squalid makeshift camps across Port-au-Prince.
"Lots of people living in crowded areas with poor sanitation and difficulty in accessing clean water facilitates the spread of disease," epidemiologist Jeanette Rainey, an expert in the spread of infectious diseases with UNICEF, said by phone from the capital.
The Haitian government, U.N. agencies and non-governmental organizations organize the mass vaccination drive, which started earlier this month. Its initial aim is to protect children younger than 7 who live in camps in the capital and other quake-affected cities, including Leogane and Jacmel, against diseases such as measles, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.
So far nearly 62,000 Haitians have received vaccines against these potentially life-threatening illnesses, according to UNICEF estimates.
Diphtheria and tetanus vaccines for older children and adults are also available, especially for quake survivors who have open or dirty wounds and are therefore more susceptible to bacterial infections that can lead to tetanus.
Even before the quake, outbreaks of diseases in Haiti were a major concern. Tetanus among newborns was a leading public health problem and the country experienced a big outbreak of whooping cough in 2004, according to the Pan American Health Organization, the Americas arm of the World Health Organization.
Prevention of diseases has been historically poor in Haiti: only half of all children below the age of one received measles vaccines before the quake, says PAHO.
UNICEF’s Rainey added: "The low immunity among the population also facilitates the spread of disease."
With people constantly moving in and out of camps, some of which host up to 25,000 people each, aid agencies are finding it difficult to keep track of those who need vaccines and those who have already been immunized.
Another challenge is to ensure that vaccines are kept in cold temperatures to preserve them and to provide enough so-called cold boxes to transport vaccines in.
Creating more robust surveillance systems to monitor the incidence of infectious diseases in some 315 camps is a priority, the WHO says. It and NGOs have set up field laboratories in some camps to monitor outbreaks of diseases as part of an emergency early warning system.
While increased cases of diarrhea and suspected cases of measles and tetanus were reported several weeks after the quake, so far there have been no major outbreaks of diseases.
However, a recent WHO report said there would be a high risk of such diseases as malaria, dengue and leptospirosis spreading in Haiti starting in April, when the rainy season begins.