Forty percent of the victims of cholera that has been spreading in Haiti for nearly two months are children, according to Unicef.
Monsignor Joji Vadakara, Vatican City
The United Nations Children’s Fund, Unicef, has said that two out of five of the victims of cholera that has spread in the Caribbean country of Haiti in the past two months are children, and around 1,000 cases of cholera have been reported so far. . More than 10,000 people are suspected to have contracted cholera. Currently, 188 people have died from cholera in the past two months.
Since the cholera epidemic was reported in Haiti, nine out of ten people who have fallen ill come from the areas of the country most affected by the food crisis. Severely malnourished children are twice as likely to contract cholera and three times as likely to die, according to UNICEF.
Speaking on the situation of children in Haiti, Manuel Fontaine, director of UNICEF’s Office of Emergency Programs, said children in the country face three main threats: malnutrition, cholera and armed attacks. According to data from the Ministry of Health, 924 cholera cases and 188 cholera deaths were reported in Haiti as of November 21.
Against a backdrop of grave insecurity and instability, UNICEF, in collaboration with the Haitian authorities and other partners, has strengthened its response to cholera.
Over the next five months, nearly $30 million in funding is expected to scale up cholera prevention efforts and provide clean water, nutrition, and health and safety care to 14 million people.
