CDC Responds to Cholera Outbreak in Haiti

November 15, 2010, 12:00 PM ET

CDC is working closely with other U.S. government agencies and international partners in support of the Haitian government’s response to the cholera outbreak in that country. CDC is collaborating with the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Pan American Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and a host of other organizations to assist the Haiti Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) in a concerted effort to control the outbreak.
The top priority of the response is to save lives and control the spread of disease. CDC’s assistance in the response is focusing on the following areas:

• increasing access to life-saving oral and IV rehydration therapy
• improving access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene supplies
• establishing a national surveillance system for accurate and timely identification of cholera cases
• consulting on clinical management and treatment of patients with cholera, and advising on ways to prevent cholera among those who don’t have it
• performing laboratory testing of suspected cholera cases in collaboration with Haiti’s National Public Health Laboratory
• conducting environmental health assessments, such as testing of the water supply, in various communities throughout the country
• carrying out site inspections at hospitals and clinics to assess their capacity to deliver health care
• conducting epidemiologic surveys and studies to find out more about the outbreak and how to contain it
• planning and conducting cholera training for clinical staff and community health workers
• developing guidelines for household infection control for possible cases of cholera brought into the United States
• developing messages in support of cholera prevention and control efforts (including information translated into French, Creole, and Spanish)
• working with partners to monitor the progress of Tropical Storm Tomas and consult about potential impact that the storm could have on the response to the outbreak.

On November 1, CDC provided the Haitian government with the results of laboratory testing showing that the cholera strain linked to the outbreak is most similar to cholera strains found in South Asia. More work is needed to determine the origin of the cholera strain in Haiti.

Reference: http://www.cdc.gov/haiticholera/update/

Page last reviewed: November 15, 2010

Page last updated: November 15, 2010

Content source: Global Health

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