Cholera Catastrophe Spreads in Haiti
by Kim Ives
“They are doing exactly the wrong thing,” said Dr. Manolo Castro. “When you bring cholera victims into a hospital, especially one with poor conditions, you stand a good chance of infecting all the patients in that hospital.”
Dr. Castro, 74, is a Cuban doctor working at Haiti’s finest pediatric hospital, St. Damien, in Tabarre. When it comes to cholera, where a virulent bacterium provokes severe vomiting and diarrhea which can kill in a few hours, he knows what he is talking about. He has tangled with the deadly disease before.
In 1990, a cholera epidemic struck the Zambian town where Dr. Castro was a teacher at a hospital as part of a Cuban medical mission. Soon there were some 6,000 cholera victims. The hospital’s Zambian director packed up his family and fled. The Cuban Embassy and Zambian government asked Dr. Castro to step in to help the panicked population. Dr. Castro went to the Public Health Ministry’s office in town and with them identified a local stadium where they could quarantine hundreds of cholera patients. Within a few weeks, Dr. Castro’s team of six Cuban and six Zambian doctors had brought the outbreak under control.
“It is essential to isolate cholera victims from other patients, especially where there is poor sanitation,” said Dr. Castro, who helped squelch another cholera outbreak when stationed in the Cape Verde islands in 1994. “The government should also stop all traffic and travel between the affected area and those not affected. Otherwise, the disease is going to spread.”
http://www.haiti-liberte.com/archives/volume4-15/cholera%20catastrophe.asp
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of their church's Evangelical youth mission. They're planning on taking all kinds of toys, coloring books, asceptic packs of juice/snacks, school/sports supplies, and of course, kids Bibles. Adults are going along and will help with cleanup and building in whatever area they're assigned. My niece raised $1600 herself in order to go, and another $1000 to add to the building supply fund.
Hope she makes it there and back safely 
