Análise da vulnerabilidade do Haiti frente a Epidemia do Cólera: o caso do Departamento de Artibonite

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze Haiti’s socio-environmental vulnerability to the cholera epidemic. This serious illness was introduced to the country, through the Nepalese armed forces, sent to Haiti by the UN during the Mission for Stability in Haiti. The first reports of the disease were recorded after the earthquake tragedy, which devastated the country in January 2010, causing 220,000 deaths and leaving 1.5 million people homeless. In this context, it is necessary to assess the role played by the UN in the course of a health crisis which has caused the most serious cholera epidemic in Haiti. At the same time, we analyzed the failure of the country’s socioeconomic and environmental systems, which are responsible for transforming it into one of the most vulnerable in the world. The high level of environmental degradation in Haiti has resulted in a condition of high socio-environmental vulnerability and low political capacity to mitigate risk reduction. The methodology used in this study is of the qualitative type and the data collection technique is the documental/bibliographic research, and the realization of a focal group assists in data collection. Results indicate that the earthquake hit the economic, political and population center of the country, the city of Port-au-Prince, where 66% of GDP (Gross domestic product) and 39% of the population were concentrated. The disastrous consequences include: the destruction of a large part of the economy, reaffirm the condition of a country historically vulnerable to disasters and the impacts of the epidemic on the health of the Haitian population. In effect, this disease killed more than 10,000 Haitians and contaminated more than 800,000.