Avellon Williams
PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI – The European Union has pledged €1 million to support Haiti’s emergency response to the cholera outbreak.
Those funds were allocated by the Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations Department of the European Union to support activities by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
As a result of the emergency response, approximately 48,000 people will have access to timely and adequate life-saving treatments and be protected from cholera infection.
With this emergency funding from the European Union, PAHO will purchase essential inputs to improve treatment delivery and cholera detection capabilities, including rapid tests, reagents, equipment for collecting samples and laboratory diagnosis, and will support epidemiologists, community health representatives, and nurses at mobile clinics by funding telecommunications and data processing teams.
Additionally, the funds will contribute to the expansion and optimization of cholera bed capacities, as well as the implementation of cholera-specific protocols by medical centers.
According to the EU, PAHO will coordinate with the Ministry of Public Health and Population to support departmental epidemiological surveillance while strengthening the expertise of multipurpose community health workers so that they can identify cholera cases quickly and support containment, prevention, and response efforts.
A portion of the emergency funding will also be used to promote awareness and communication campaigns about how to prevent and control the spread of the disease and protect the most vulnerable among us.
