cholera vaccine heading to Haiti

A Haitian protester in Port-au-Prince
last month spray-paints a wall,
equating the UN mission in Haiti
 (abbreviated here as MINISTA) with cholera.
via NPR

Woo-hoo! After so very many deaths, there has finally been a go-ahead given for a cholera vaccination program in Haiti.  Thanks be to God!  I can't imagine anything more needed, more logical, or more cost effective. 

And yet apparently they are having trouble finding donors to support it.

What???!!!

NPR's article on this (link below) says,

You'd think a few hundred thousand dollars to launch a vaccination campaign against a big and growing disease threat wouldn't be a problem. After all, donor nations pledged $4.6 billion to help Haiti recover from the calamitous earthquake of January 12, 2010 – the biggest international relief effort ever.

Donna Barry of Partners in Health says nearly 60 percent of those funds, or $2.6 billion, remains to be disbursed.

But yesterday the group's founder Dr. Paul Farmer was in California beating the bushes to raise money for the vaccination campaign, "which I regard as somewhat ridiculous," he says. "We're not entirely pleased that we're going out on a limb, looking for funding that should have been made available very quickly."

Go figure.

Well, here is a step in the right direction, and we can help make further strides: call your senator or member of congress, donate yourself, start a campaign, talk about it! 

(And in case you have not yet noticed, there is a Partners in Health badge on the right which links to their donation page.  Just a suggestion.)

Cholera is in Haiti for the long term.  Something needs to be done, and it needs to be done yesterday.

Here is the link to the article and the source for the photo:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/10/20/141546570/after-a-half-million-cholera-cases-vaccination-will-begin-in-haiti