News that the United Nations was recruiting Haitians to
volunteer in countries infected by the Ebola outbreak surfaced this week on
social media. Despite the country’s fragile healthcare infrastructure and
ongoing battle against cholera, three institutions in Haiti are actively
recruiting Haitian volunteers for Ebola countries. The United Nations (http://www.unv.org/en/how-to-volunteer/special-recruitment/applications-in-response-to-the-ebola-crisis.html),
Partners in Health, led by Dr. Paul Farmer a recipient of tens of millions of
dollars in aid money to Haiti (http://act.pih.org/page/content/ebola-recruitment),
and USAID (http://www.usaid.gov/ebola/volunteers).
The Haitian Government has moved to cut off these efforts interdicting
travel to any West African nations because they have no way to screen for or
contain the situation if returnees are in fact carrying the deadly virus. CARICOM and the OAS should immediately
move to develop similar policies and containment strategies to avoid a regional
outbreak.
In November 2010, the world learned that a cholera epidemic
was spreading in Haiti. The source of the epidemic was confirmed by several
scientific studies: Nepalese soldiers with the United Nations Mission in Haiti
(MINUSTAH) brought the cholera bacteria from their country to Haiti. The epidemic
has killed 8,000 Haitians and contaminated more than 800,000. Treating and
eradicating the epidemic will cost the country nearly US$2 billion. Four years
later, Haitians are still waiting for the UN to provide the funds to help with
the fight – and perhaps an official apology
from Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Neither seems to be forthcoming. Now with
the Haitian rumor mill in full swing, there are growing questions about the
motives behind this recruitment effort.
There is a passionate debate among Haitian citizens and the
health communities in Haiti and overseas. Many theories and questions have
arisen among these exchanges. It is clear that people are panicking both
in-country and the Diaspora. Haitian doctors and health specialists in the
Diaspora are asking some valid questions: why didn’t the UN reach out to them to help with the Haiti
Cholera epidemic? Why now for Ebola?
One of the top fears is that the UN is pushing for Haitians
to volunteer so they can find a scapegoat for what might already be an
introduction to Ebola into Haiti by UN troops. The Secretary General presented
a report in September 2014 detailing that MINUSTAH has soldiers stationed in
Haiti from all of the west African countries infected with Ebola: 129 soldiers
from Senegal, 30 from Nigeria, 16 from Guinea, 122 from Cote d’Ivoire, 43 from
Mali and 38 from Niger. Despite repeated requests for confirmation that none of
these soldiers are carrying the Ebola virus, no answers are forthcoming. Questions
about troop rotations remain unanswered as well except to confirm that rotations
have stopped. Haitians are further raising concerns about NGOs rotating their
personnel from Ebola countries to Haiti.
If Ebola emerged in Haiti in the coming weeks it would cause
additional damage to MINUSTAH and UN headquarters in New York. The cholera
epidemic has already caused so much damage that the major UN players have
decided to kill this mission as soon as possible and the process to downgrade
the mission has already begun. Haiti cannot afford and manage this virus. Every
Haitian and friend of Haiti should work together to prevent that from happening
while reinforcing the country’s capabilities to face these emerging threats
that viruses pose. We should be ever mindful that Haiti’s tourism industry was
decimated in the 1980s Haiti by the HIV virus, which at that time was referred
to as 4H (one of those Hs stood for Haitian). The rural economy was deeply affected by the slaughter of
all Haitians pigs due to the porcine virus fever outbreak in the 1990s; and in
early 2011 the Haitian chickens were wiped out by the bird flu. We are still paying for this outbreak
as we import US$450 million chickens and eggs each year from the Dominican Republic
every year. And most recently – in
addition to the UN cholera outbreak – Haiti has been impacted by the chickungunya
virus carried by the tiger mosquito.
This new disease is killing huge numbers of Haitians and Caribbean
people, particularly those with preexisting conditions. We can hardly afford
another disaster. The OAS and Caricom should be working on a regional strategy
to confront these emerging threats that viruses and bacteria constitute.