Earth Equity News

Relief Workers in Haiti Face Dual Challenge. By Shari Roan, LATimes, January 15, 2010. "In Haiti, average life expectancy is 53, three-quarters of women give birth without a health attendant, diarrheal illnesses are the second-leading cause of death and 30% of children younger than 5 have stunted growth. And that was before Tuesday's magnitude 7.0 earthquake. This time, emergency medical responders will have to provide much more than the usual food, water, latrines and bandages to stop the spread of disease... They'll also have to create a public health system on the fly... Haitians are in desperate need of clean water, and there was a stampede Thursday when a rumor spread that water was available... One person needs about four gallons of clean water for drinking and hygiene per day to limit disease... In the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, with a population of about 9 million, only $96 per person is spent on healthcare, compared with $6,090 in the United States and $3,040 in France. Half of all Haitian families live in a single-room dwelling. About 8% of newborns and children younger than 5 die of malnourishment each year. One-quarter of adult women are anemic. There are roughly three doctors in Haiti for every 10,000 people, according to the World Health Organization."