After Haiti’s devastating earthquake
nearly a year ago, volunteers and medical professionals scrambled to care for overwhelming medical needs.
In the chaos, those helping the sick and injured may have unwittingly contributed to the spread of HIV/AIDS, says Dr Marlene Dorismond, health programs manager for Food for the Hungry (FH).
Prior to the earthquake, Haiti had about 200,000 known infections of HIV. Dorismond believes it likely that even more people are infected today.
Following the earthquake, medical workers had huge numbers of medical emergencies to deal with and very limited resources for providing people proper care in the midst of the earthquake’s devastation.
Sometimes, health precautions took a backseat to simply providing the care that people needed. Careful handling of blood did not always happen, and sanitary gloves were scarce. The AIDS virus is likely to have spread further as a result.
Now, FH and other non-governmental organizations are stretched even further to provide the same programs they did before, with even less infrastructure. FH began long-term development work in Haiti in 2008. It works with its Child Development office in the Dominican Republic, which is five minutes from the border of Haiti.
The ministry also works with over 150 Haitian churches to help them meet the physical and spiritual needs of their communities.
FH provides abstinence and faithfulness training to prevent transmission of HIV, especially among the youth.
It also cares for people infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS by providing home-based care, nutrition and hygiene education, counseling services, and the application of immunizations and antibiotics.
In addition, FH has special training, support, and emergency relief services for orphans and vulnerable children affected by the HIV/AIDS crisis.
SOURCE: MNN
