Tensions rise before Haiti elections as cholera spreads (Feature)

By Franz Smets Nov 16, 2010, 22:14 GMT

Port-au-Prince, Haiti - The cholera epidemic spreading rapidly across Haiti has become the latest catastrophe in the earthquake-shattered country that heads to the polls November 28.

Vast amounts of garbage - plastic, rags, rotting fruits and vegetables, faecal matter - collect in the teeming slums of Cite de Dieu and Cite Soleil in the northern periphery of Haitian capital Port-au-Prince.

Recent heavy rains have scattered the rubbish across the streets and squares and onto vacant areas of the city's historic centre from which the rubble after the devastating January 12 earthquake has been removed.

In recent weeks, presidential election posters also stick out from amid the trash.

'Vote for Alexis,' says one. 'So that children can go to school for free.'

Amid the mountains of rubbish in front of buildings that look like they could collapse any minute, vendors sell bananas, mangoes, eggs, chocolate bars, clothes and shoes. They shout out as they hawk their ware - a busy mix of thousands of people selling, buying and haggling with one another.

Jean William Pape works here, close to the city centre where many buildings are conspicuously missing as they were destroyed in the earthquake in which close to 230,000 people died.

Pape is the only internationally recognized Haitian infectious disease expert, with experience in treating HIV. Now cholera has reared its ugly head in Haiti after several decades.

'If we do not find a solution to the slums, we stand no chance to contain the cholera infection,' Pape says.

More than 1.5 million homeless people have been living in overcrowded camps since the earthquake. The problem now is not these refugee camps, Pape stresses, but rather the poor neighbourhoods with no toilets and clean water.

'There will only be reconstruction in Haiti if we move at least 3 million people out of the slums and into modern homes,' he says.

But reconstruction in Haiti seems almost unthinkable under the current circumstances. Hurricane Tomas has just left tens of thousands of Haitians homeless in the southwestern part of the country, and it also created the 'perfect storm' of conditions for the spread of cholera.

Each passing day claims about 50 lives and adds an estimated 600 new infections. Since the outbreak on October 19, more than 1,000 people have died of cholera, and more than 15,000 have been infected.

Many Haitians still do not know how to avoid getting sick. They have no access to modern media through which cholera prevention messages are being disseminated. Haitian President Rene Preval addressed the residents of poor neighbourhoods Sunday, to explain the situation to them. But there is a lot of uncertainty, and people often mistrust hospitals, where they fear they will be killed.

That is why the sick get to doctors too late, dehydrated, emaciated and in mortal danger. In the city of Gonaives, bodies were in recent weeks to be seen on the streets before being taken away and burnt, as ordered by the mayor.

The spread of cholera takes place before a tense political backdrop: A new government is to be elected next week. Presidential candidate Charles Baker has blamed outgoing President Preval with having done little or nothing to contain the disease. Through his inaction, Baker and other opposition candidates allege, Preval tried to postpone the election.

One person was killed and at least 12 were injured Monday when thousands in northern Haiti protested the government's handling of the epidemic.

People in Cap Haitien, the country's second-largest city, tried to set two police stations on fire after clashing with UN stabilization troops and Haitian police.

Health experts and epidemiologists have predicted that up to 200,000 people are at risk for cholera, and have emphasized programmes on educating the population so that they have access to early treatment.

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