The Challenge

Even before the January 2010 earthquake, 40 percent of the Haitian population had no access to basic health services; infant mortality in Haiti was the highest in the Americas, and tuberculosis rates were the highest in the Western Hemisphere. Chronic malnutrition was widespread, with 32 percent of children malnourished; and the HIV/AIDS prevalence was 2.2 percent. The earthquake devastated much of Haiti’s health infrastructure, destroying and damaging many clinics and hospitals, disabling thousands of people, and initially displacing 1.5 million to camps, with elevated risks of communicable diseases. A cholera outbreak starting in October 2010 added additional strains to this overburdened system.

USG Strategy

The U.S. Government (USG) has been providing access to health services for 50 percent of the people of Haiti for the last five years, including a basic package of health services (primarily maternal and child health) and more sophisticated HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services. After the earthquake, the USG moved quickly to address the new health needs, including disability care, while maintaining essential services. The USG is also making progress on rebuilding key health infrastructure according to the Ministry of Health and Population’s (MSPP) plans for a sustainable network of health facilities. To build back better in Haiti in the face of the many challenges, the USG is entering into a Global Health Partnership Framework with the Haitian government, which promotes sustainability by emphasizing country ownership and leadership. The Framework will be accompanied by a five-year implementation plan that encompasses contributions of the government, civil society, the private sector, and other donors.

Accomplishments

We continue to provide access to essential health services, while responding to needs arising from the earthquake and cholera outbreak. The USG has:

• Continued to support 251 sites that provide primary care and 52 that provide secondary care nationwide, to nearly 50 percent of the Haitian population.
• Provided HIV counseling and testing services for nearly 170,000 pregnant women in 2011, an alltime high.
• Identified and treated more than 2,900 people with symptomatic tuberculosis. Immunization programs vaccinated nearly 157,000 children under age one in 2011 for routine childhood diseases. We also provided more than 350,000 antenatal care visits and more than 131,000 postpartum/ newborn care visits.
• Provided expertise and more than $73 million to the Haitian-led, international campaign to prevent and treat cholera as of December 2011, mitigating the impact of the outbreak and bringing the rolling case fatality rate below the international standard of 1 percent.
• Funded St. Boniface Spinal Cord Injury Center to help 24 spinal cord injury patients, 12 of whom have been successfully discharged back to their communities.