Bringing care where there is none

Deficient sanitation systems, poor nutrition, and inadequate health services have pushed Haiti to the bottom of the World Bank’s rankings of health indicators.

According to the United Nations World Food Program, 80 percent of Haiti’s population lives below the poverty line. Consequently malnutrition is a significant problem and more than half of all Haitian children are undersized as a result of malnutrition.

Less than half the population has access to clean drinking water.

Haiti’s healthy life expectancy at birth is 63 years but the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that only 43 percent of the target population receives the recommended immunizations.

Haiti has 25 physicians and 11 nurses per 100,000; consequently most rural areas have no access to health care, making the people more susceptible to otherwise treatable diseases.

Haiti has the highest incidence of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) outside of Africa.

There are a wide variety of reasons why many women face death when trying to carry a child to term.

Only one-fourth of births are attended by a skilled health professional.

There are not enough resources to educate and provide care for those women who are pregnant.

In the rural community the majority of births occur at home, therefore most postnatal deaths happen delaying seeking treatment.