Haiti Zika & Cholera UpsurgePost Hurricane Matthew

Zika is a threat to the US, the Caribbean and low lying land.

In the tropics Zika reigns. The mosquitoes that spread Zika “usually do not live” at elevations above 6,500 feet (2,000 meters).

Dominica has over 100,000 reported Zika cases. Haiti has a much lower number. Some analysts suspect Haiti’s Zika numbers are not being reported.

Mosquitoes Potential Range (https://www.cdc.gov/zika/vector/range.html)

Cholera in the Caribbean

“With damage assessments from Hurricane Matthew still underway in the Caribbean, the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) deployed field teams even before the storm affected areas in Haiti, the Bahamas, Cuba, and Jamaica, and is preparing for a possible cholera upsurge in Haiti, where more than 28,500 cases have already been reported so far in 2016.”

“Cholera is a highly transmissible disease through water contamination,” says Jean Luc Poncelet, PAHO/WHO Representative in Haiti. The south-western part of the island is “seriously devastated so the risk of transmission after a hurricane like that is increased.”

Cholera in the Caribbean

“9,000 people died in Haiti’s last cholera outbreak. We must act fast in disaster-affected hotspots to help prevent history repeating itself... we’re already hearing warnings about the potentially devastating aftermath: flooding and another surge in cholera cases, possibly reaching levels not seen since the earthquake” - Dr Anita Zaidi, The Guardian

Sources:

CDC (Zika Assets)

The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/oct/07/hurricane-matthew-haiti-needs-vaccines-to-stop-deadly-cholera-spreading

Pan American Health Organization/ World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO)Press Release, 6 October 2016

Zermatt Investors Data www.zermattresearch.com

NPR http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/09/07/492818984/why-the-low-zika-numbers-in-haiti-might-be-wrong

The Vergehttp://www.theverge.com/2016/10/6/13189342/hurricane-matthews-haiti-cholera-epidemic-facts