Children in Haiti hit by cholera; malnutrition rises

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – A cholera outbreak sweeping through Haiti is claiming a growing number of children amid a surge in malnutrition, UNICEF announced Wednesday.

The deadly combination means that about 40% of cholera cases in the impoverished country of more than 11 million people now involve children, with 9 out of 10 cases reported in areas where people are starving, according to the United Nations agency.

“We have to plan for the worst,” Manuel Fontaine, director of UNICEF’s Office of Emergency Programs, told The Associated Press on Tuesday during a visit to Haiti.

Cholera has killed more than 200 people since the first deaths were announced in early October, and another 9,300 are hospitalized, according to the Haitian Health Ministry, but experts believe the number is much higher due to underreporting.

UNICEF and Haiti’s government are seeking at least $28 million to help feed, hydrate and care for 1.4 million people affected by the crisis, with that number expected to increase as malnutrition worsens, especially in urban areas such as the Cite Soleil slum in the capital of Port-au-Prince, something that hasn’t been seen before.

“Cholera and malnutrition are a lethal combination, one leading to the other,” Fontaine said.

On a recent morning at the Gheskio medical clinic in Port-au-Prince, nurses, doctors and social workers tended to malnourished children who also were fighting cholera.

“This is a challenge for us,” said Dr.

Karine Sévère, who runs the clinic’s cholera department. “When the children are malnourished, it takes more time for them to recover.”

She estimates that malnutrition cases have increased by at least 40% in recent weeks, with nurses feeding children soup in the morning and rice, beans, meat and vegetables in the afternoon to help them gain weight.

It’s food that not many parents can afford in a country where about 60% of the population earns less than $2 a day.