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STORY: HAITI / FISHER CHOLERA
TRT: 2.36
SOURCE: MINUSTAH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS
DATELINE: 16 DECEMBER 2010, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
1. Wide shot press conference with MINUSTAH, UNICEF and WHO representatives in Haiti
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Nigel Fisher, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Haiti:
“It’s all of us, international supporters and national leaders, Haitians; this is a time to come together. This is a real opportunity to say together we can overcome Cholera. And it would be a pity that history blamed us because of the political turmoil for letting this opportunity slip.”
3. Cutaway, press
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Nigel Fisher, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Haiti:
“At the start of the epidemic, in the early days, we were seeing the death rate of about four percent, sometimes about five percent. Currently it is hovering around 2 percent. But we cannot be complacent because in the last few days we have seen again a jump, a spike in the number of deaths.”
5. Cutaway, press
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Nigel Fisher, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Haiti:
“To appeal, first of all to the decision makers, and they are mainly at municipality and commune level, who need to decide where are the sites where we can put common graves, where are the sites where we can put waste from hospitals and centers. And for those areas where we still need cholera treatment centers, where can we put those.”
7. Cutaway, press
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Nigel Fisher, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Haiti:
“On the one hand we have many heroic workers who continued to work there at night, but we have also had others who stopped. We had some brave ambulance drivers who were able to get through the crowds. Others, who were stopped. And each time a worker, an ambulance, is prevented from moving, each time we lose yet another warehouse – and as I said we lost another warehouse in Les Cayes which was looted – this means lives are at cost.”
9. Cutaway, press
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Nigel Fisher, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Haiti:
“And equally important is the call made by the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General two days ago to the three main contenders for presidency asking which of them to tell their supporters that while they may exercise their democratic right to protest and to demonstrate, this cannot be done at the cost of the program to combat Cholera.”
11. Med shot, journalist at press conference
United Nations (UN) Deputy Special Representative in Haiti Nigel Fisher held a press conference today (16 December) giving an update on the cholera epidemic in the country.
Talking to reports in Port au Prince, Fisher called the international community and national leaders to “come together” to “overcome cholera.”
He added that although the death rate had recently dropped from four to two percent, “we cannot be complacent because in the last few days we have seen again a jump, a spike in the number of deaths.”
Earlier this week, the Ministère de la Santé Publique et de la Population (MSPP) reported that the cumulative number of cases and deaths due to cholera is 109,196 and 2,405 respectively. 54,595 patients have been hospitalized. The in-hospital case fatality rate for the country is three percent, while the overall fatality rate remains at about two percent.
Nigel appealed to decision makers “mainly at municipality and commune levels” to decide on sites to dispose waste from hospitals and Cholera Treatment Centers (CTC).
Recent episodes of violence surrounding presidential elections in Haiti had impacted the delivery of care but CTCs, Cholera Treatment Units (CTU) and Oral Rehydration Posts (ORP) are still functioning and supplies are reaching the areas of need.
Nigel talked about the “many heroic workers who continued to work there at night.”
Nigel added that the UN is in contact with “the three main contenders for presidency” urging them “to tell their supporters that while they may exercise their democratic right to protest and to demonstrate, this cannot be done at the cost of the program to combat cholera.”
The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that experts and epidemiologists from the World Health Organization, Cuban Medical Brigade, and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have developed a contingency plan for emergencies. The plan consists of three areas (surveillance, alert and response, and departmental coordination) and will result in a more efficient response to future security emergencies.
