Hurricane Preparedness at St. Boniface Hospital

A hurricane is roaring toward your hospital. What do you need to do immediately? What do you need to do before it hits?

These were the questions posed to Saint Boniface Hospital staff during a simulation exercise held this summer. The exercise included communication with staff, partners, and the community; principles of triage; and what to do in the days and weeks following an acute emergency.

Less than a month later, St. Boniface Hospital was threatened by Tropical Storm Franklin. Forecasts and alerts were widely shared, operations teams secured the hospital buildings and grounds, and clinicians discharged patients who were well enough to return home. In the end, the storm spared Haiti. We were relieved, and we were proud to know that we were prepared for the worst.

It is challenging to prioritize disaster preparedness in the midst of Haiti’s political and humanitarian crisis, but the country remains exposed to hurricanes, flooding, landslides, and epidemics as well as earthquakes. And climate change has increased the frequency of extreme weather events.

Going forward, we plan to expand this work beyond the hospital to the neighboring areas. We will work with our partner facilities in the southwest to further strengthen our collective disaster readiness plans. By ensuring communities and health care facilities throughout the region are prepared to act effectively in emergencies, all of us will be able to mobilize faster and better—and save more lives.

Learn more about Disaster Response at Health Equity International/St. Boniface Hospital.

In late 2022, cholera reemerged in Haiti following three years of no laboratory-confirmed cases. Since then, over 35,000 confirmed and suspected cases have been reported across Haiti’s ten departments. Both a driver and a symptom of Haiti’s ongoing humanitarian crisis, untreated cholera can be deadly in less than a day.

By damaging water and sanitation infrastructure and triggering severe flooding events, tropical storms and hurricanes often lead to a surge of cholera cases. HEI/SBH’s team is readying its cholera response team to prevent and treat outbreaks as hurricane season begins.

2022-23 Cholera Response

Guided by our experience responding to Haiti’s 2010-19 cholera epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic, HEI/SBH rolled out a rapid, comprehensive response to the 2022 cholera outbreak. Our team established a new 15-bed treatment center where we provided lifesaving medical treatment to patients in our broader catchment zone. SBH lab technicians partnered with Haiti’s Ministry of Health (MSPP) to conduct rapid cholera tests for health facilities across the region. Amid grave logistical challenges and supply chain shocks, our operations teams sourced critical medications and supplies for SBH and regional health facilities, including antibiotics, oral rehydration salts (ORS), and personal protective equipment (PPE).

Community-Based Prevention

Since October 2022, HEI/SBH has worked alongside MSPP to offer hygiene and disease prevention education sessions to over 25,000 frontline healthcare workers, local leaders, and community members. Community health nurse Witnie Potau is one of the key members of HEI/SBH’s cholera response team, working tirelessly to ensure that local communities have the tools they need to prevent cholera, identify its symptoms, and seek medical care when needed. For Witnie, one of the best ways to prevent the spread of cholera is to have one-on-one conversations. “We talk to people about the disease… so they can better understand what cholera is and how to protect themselves,” she says.

Day by day, community by community, Witnie sees the community health team’s work making an impact. “I am happy to work with the cholera team so that I can help stop the disease from spreading across the entire country,” she says. “We can break the chain of transmission.”

To learn more about HEI/SBH’s infectious disease programs and cholera response efforts, visit this page. Click here to learn more about our disaster relief and preparedness efforts.

Strength in Partnerships

HEI/SBH’s work would not be possible without the support of local and international partners. Leaders from five organizations discussed the ways they are working in partnership to save lives and advance health care in Haiti. Click here to watch the conversation.

Support HEI/SBH

To help ensure HEI/SBH can continue to provide access to high quality, compassionate healthcare in Haiti, no matter what, click the link below or visit this page to donate.

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