Health in Haiti
In 2003, for example, the WHO confirmed an outbreak of typhoid fever in Haiti that, because of a lack of access to doctors and safe water, led to dozens of deaths.
[6] Structural violence, as defined by medical anthropologist Dr. Paul Farmer, is a source that is negatively affecting Haiti's healthcare system and the health of the Haitian people.
Such groups include females and those belonging to lower socioeconomic classes[8] Being one of the world's poorest countries, Haiti illustrates how prevailing societal frameworks perpetuate the suffering of certain individuals and communities.
[8] Natural disasters such as the earthquake in 2010 are the main causes of trauma and loss in Haiti; these events can have a severe impact on mental health.
Structural barriers such as cost, distance and location prevent most people in Haiti from utilizing professional biomedical services.
Instead, many people rely on a health care system composed of Roman Catholic, Protestant or Vodou (which combines West African traditions and Catholicism) practices.
Health professionals in Haiti often use religious leaders as allies to serve as consultants, as they gain the patients' trust more readily.
Mental health problems are often considered to be consequences of a spell, a hex, a curse transmitted by an enemy or failure to please the spirits.
Because health professionals are unable to offer a biomedical explanation for most mental illnesses, many Haitians utilize a combination of medical, religious and Vodou sources when available.
According to the high maternal mortality rates, Haitian women and girls die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth more often than those in any other developed country.
The international health planning approach combines interventions that are essential to child survival, such as the GOBI strategies (growth monitoring, oral rehydration therapy, breastfeeding and immunization).
[19] Clinic-based care requires families to rearrange their daily schedules so that an adult can travel to the clinic where they expect to wait for long periods.
Mothers must meet daily subsistence needs, attend market activities, and cope with everyday family problems; these responsibilities leave little time to travel to the clinic to have their babies immunized.
[19] The widespread practice of Vodou throughout Haiti has led to the conception of several folk diagnoses intended to explain various symptoms of mental illness, all of which pose a great risk to pregnant women.
Because women are not considered adults in Haiti until becoming a mother, the inability to bear a child results in no economic support or other benefits of a conjugal relationship.
Workshops coordinated by the Women's Refugee Commission and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) are seeking to set guidelines for meeting sexual and reproductive health needs during incidents of disaster.
The strategies would include plans for providing services to prevent sexual violence, reduce HIV transmissions, and preserve the lives of women and children.
