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Haiti

ACTED's emergency response to the cholera outbreak

The Artibonite, a region north of the capital city of Port-au-Prince has been facing a cholera outbreak for the past five days. Over 200 deaths have been reported and 3,115 cases of cholera detected.

Aquatabs and ORS distributed to 24,000 families

Already active and present in the affected area, ACTED was alerted as soon as the outbreak broke off and were able to start first emergency interventions aimed families potentially at risks. Since October 21th, ACTED has distributed ORS and aquatabs to 24,000 families in Artibonite and localities around the city of Saint-Marc. ACTED will provide similar first emergency water and sanitation relief to 90,000 families in the next two weeks.

ACTED is present in Haiti and in particular in Saint Marc and Hinche since 2004. The areas affected by the outbreak are well known of ACTED team as several projects have been implemented in the Artibonite department. ACTED's experience and establishment in the Artibonite have facilitated the set-up of an immediate coordination and first steps of a response to this crisis, notably through community based teams formed and trained during ACTED's previous activities in the area that alerted about the outbreak very early and are gathering data on a constant basis.

Ensuring access to potable water and improving hygiene and sanitation

In order to confine the outbreak and ensure proper hygiene behavior, ACTED will further distributing aquatabs, soap, hygiene kits, jerry cans and ORS doses to families potentially at risks to the cholera outbreak in the days to come.

The supply of clean water is key in preventing the spread of the epidemics and mitigating the impact of the cholera outbreak. ACTED will install safe water points, such as bladders and PVC tanks. 17 bladders have already been brought by trucks in Saint Marc to response to the first emergency and 22 additional are on their way. Treated drinking water will also be distributed through water trucking. Throughout these operations, water treatment will be key in all of our interventions. After the outbreak has been controlled, ACTED will be ready to propose a second phase intervention to ensure the stabilization of water quality and mitigate any risk of a new outbreak.

Most of all, ACTED will conduct massive hygiene awareness campaign in order to promote appropriate defecation behaviors and basics way of preventing from cholera. Micro-phones, leaflets and broadcastings spots will spread messages and community mobilizers network will be rally to participate to hygiene awareness campaign.

Thanks to its presence and the knowledge of the affected area, ACTED was one of the first NGO to start immediate relief operations. Since the outbreak, ACTED has been dedicated to sharing this experience of the context with other relevant humanitarian agencies and coordinating our operations with relevant relief actors to provide a swift emergency response to prevent the outbreak from disseminating further among the communities of Artibonite, and from impacting earthquake-affected populations in Port-au-Prince, already facing dire sanitation and living conditions.