Haiti - Health : Optimism at ministry that talks about elimination of cholera by the end of 2018
Haiti could eliminate the 7-year-old cholera epidemic by the end of 2018, according to Donald Francois, Head of the National Cholera Program of the Ministry of Public Health, as the number of cases declined sharply, according to figures from the Government and United Nations officials.
The Ministry of Health said that as of the beginning of the year 7,400 new suspected cholera cases were reported compared to nearly 20,000 for the same period last year.
"We have never seen so few cases [...] With the cases we’ve seen we think we can eliminate cholera by the end of 2018," says Donald Francois.
Ronald Waldman, a global health professor at George Washington University abounds in the same sense "The number of reported cases can certainly decline dramatically and even fall to zero. Most likely, though, there will continue to be a low-level number of cases, maybe seasonally, maybe year-round," adding that Haiti could expect periodic peaks of cholera during natural hazards, such as hurricanes.
