A Glimpse Of An Everyday Struggle Among Haiti's Health Care Workers

JEAN DENIS, Haiti -- At the health clinic here, three hours northwest of Port-au-Prince, a crowd of mostly women and girls linger in the shade away from the afternoon sun, waiting to see a doctor. This is one of the least developed areas of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. For miles around, this clinic is the only place people can come for modern medical attention. "You are standing at the edge of the heartland of the rural area," said Francoise Peak, a translator who frequently works with the United Nations and joined a group of reporters at the clinic. In rural Haiti, she said, people can blame even simple health problems on spiritual disturbances rather than a medical matter: "Out there, if you're sick, it's not because of a health issue. It's because someone cast something on your family. A spiritual problem. Serious business, voodoo."  Five years after a devastating earthquake hit the island and leveled towns and infrastructure, providing care out in the rural part of Haiti remains a monumental challenge, especially when it comes to women and children. Medical workers must overcome the limitations that extreme poverty imposes on the vast majority of this area's residents, as well as many people’s cultural and religious aversion to modern medicine. Health care providers are overworked. Many clinics, few and far between, are understaffed and poorly equipped. At the hot and sparsely furnished compound in Jean Denis, goats outnumber employees. A corn...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news