Oct. 28, 2010

Cholera and the chance to save lives is foremost on the minds of a four-member medical team from HCJB Global Hands in Ecuador that arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Oct. 26, and will stay for two weeks.

"Our medical people see this as a great opportunity to make a difference," said Sheila Leech, vice president of international healthcare, in a telephone interview from Quito. "People do not die of cholera, they die of dehydration. Without treatment, cholera can kill relatively quickly. But you can get spectacular results if you get to them in time. You can save lives!"

The HCJB Global Hands team-the fourth to travel to the country since the devastating Jan. 12 quake-is dealing with cholera for the first time. This bacterial disease affects the gastrointestinal tract and can spread quickly, especially amid squalor and poor sanitation conditions.

In response, team members brought along as many medical supplies as they could carry-antibiotics, oral rehydration packets, IV kits for fluid replacement, iron for anemia, antifungal medicines, asthma medications and vitamins for children and adults. The Haitian Health Ministry reported on Wednesday that cholera had caused 292 deaths and sickened another 4,147.

"For those of us who were in Haiti before, we just shake our heads," Leech related. "How much more can these poor people take? They've survived the quake, and now this. How can you not respond? That poor country has just been shaken. My question is, can we send more [teams]?"

Led by the sub-director of special projects for the Latin American Region, Hermann Schirmacher (a German-speaking missionary from Paraguay), team members also include Dr. Francisco Nina (a third-year medical resident from Bolivia studying at HCJB Global's Hospital Vozandes-Quito), Ian McFarland (a nurse from Northern Ireland who heads mobile medical clinics in Ecuador) and Dr. Mark Nelson (a missionary who interrupted his home ministry assignment in the U.S. to join the team).

The team will again be working alongside Samaritan's Purse (SP) which stepped up its involvement in Haiti after the quake, setting up 10,000 shelters in some of the worst-hit areas and providing basic healthcare to the poor.

SP's country director, Matt Ellingson, said in an interview with Everyday Christian that the situation in Port-au-Prince is still "very serious. I have heard reports from different parts of the country that are far away from the area where this first happened that they aren't seeing anything-which is good-yet the U.N.'s perspective from today is to treat this as a serious outbreak, and it matches what our epidemiologists and medical people here in the country are saying."

He added that there was a slight drop in new reported cases on Sunday, "but we don't feel like it's the right time to say we have tackled this thing. We have a lot of people in horrible, horrible conditions and a climate with lots of flooding and standing water everywhere which is just ripe for problems."

The Ecuador team has been assigned to work this week at the rehydration center where SP teams are seeing more than 100 patients a day needing intensive oral and intravenous rehydration.

The center is in an area where a large "tent city" was set up after the quake and where SP staff members and volunteers have been visiting regularly. "This is in an area where the children receive vitamins and preventive care," said Leech, a nurse who was part of an earlier team in the area. SP staff members also visit two orphanages each week.

Why keep sending medical teams to Haiti? "Obviously, because the need is still there," Leech explains. "Secondly, it gives an opportunity for us to mobilize some of our Ecuadorian staff, giving our residents some cross-cultural experience. Haiti borders the Dominican Republic, so we can get translators who speak both Spanish and Creole."

Team members will be taking "normal precautions" in an effort to keep from getting cholera, Leech added. "They may wear rubber boots and they'll always wear gloves when handling body fluids. When SP staff members return from the communities, they go through a decontamination process."

Leech said the people's spiritual condition is uppermost in the minds of team members. Chaplains from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Haiti are available to counsel and pray with patients.

"They are talking to the people, preaching from the Word of God," she continued. "There is a very strong spiritual ministry going on, and lives are being changed. The believers are building and expanding the churches because Haitians are going to church now. With this new tragedy of cholera, there must be some questioning of what God is doing."

Leech urges believers worldwide to pray for the people as well as the team's safety and for guidance about sending future teams. "We want to be involved on a long-term basis, so we're evaluating the effectiveness of the teams," she said.

Ken Isaacs, SP's vice president of programs, added that he is grateful for the partnership with HCJB Global. "We're very thankful for the personnel that HCJB Global has sent to join our team in Haiti. Their knowledge and willingness to serve are great assets in this response."

Sources: HCJB Global, Samaritan's Purse, everydaychristian.com (written by Harold Goerzen)