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A map of the UN presence in Haiti (click to enlarge).“The UN launched an appeal last December, 2012 to raise more than two billion dollars to fund the ten-year plan to eliminate cholera,” says Duncan McLean, the MSF Programme Manager for Haiti, in an emailed statement. “Focused on preventive measures in water and sanitation as well as vaccination, this initiative seems to consider cholera as a development issue to be solved by 2022 and spreads a reassuring message describing a situation under control, when it’s clearly not.”The UN plan is just that: a plan, and one that relies on the cushion of a nebulous ten-year initiative that’s not yet funded. Meanwhile, many current cholera patients are dying and have no access to adequate treatment.According to McLean, the situation isn’t improving fast enough. In a country where 80 percent of the population lives on less than £1.30 a day, it’s not hard to imagine the abysmal shape that public medical facilities might be in; under-equipped, no strong enforcement of basic hygiene precautions and many cases where hospital staff haven't been paid for months. As for the cholera treatment, McLean says it's sometimes just two nurses treating 50 patients.
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