As Cholera Spreads Quickly in Haiti AmeriCares Responds With More Aid

Additional shipments of lifesaving medicines being expedited

STAMFORD, Conn., Nov. 12, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AmeriCares, with its team on the ground providing medical aid since cholera was first reported, is readying additional  emergency shipments of medicines to Haiti, including both an air and sea shipment, to combat the deadly disease which is spreading quickly and has now reached the capital city of Port-au-Prince.

AmeriCares previous shipments carrying oral rehydration fluids, IV solutions and antibiotics are being dispatched to cholera treatment centers at a high rate as more people become sickened from the waterborne bacteria that spreads through contaminated water.  AmeriCares is among the few leading aid organizations partnering with the Ministry of Health to keep cholera treatment centers provisioned.

To help stop the spread of disease, AmeriCares is also delivering a water purification shipment of two million sachets that will purify 5.5 million gallons of water, enough to provide 20,000 families with safe drinking water for weeks.  

"Now that cholera cases are being reported in Port-au-Prince, the outbreak could easily spread to the earthquake survivor camps where more than a million people are still homeless," said Christoph Gorder, senior vice president of global programs for AmeriCares. "With little natural immunity to cholera, the Haitian people are at high risk of serious illness and death."

AmeriCares relief workers have been distributing critical medicines and medical supplies from its warehouse in Port-au-Prince to health care providers on the front lines of the outbreak since October 22, when the first cases of cholera were reported in the Artibonite valley area.  As part of AmeriCares emergency response and preparedness plans, antibiotics, oral rehydration solutions, IV sets and other aid were pre-positioned in its Haiti warehouse, ready to be mobilized in the event of such an outbreak. AmeriCares will continue its deliveries of medical assistance to combat this preventable but deadly disease.

About AmeriCares

AmeriCares is a nonprofit global health and disaster relief organization which delivers medicines, medical supplies and aid to people in need around the world and across the United States.  Since it was established in 1982, AmeriCares has distributed more than $10 billion in humanitarian aid to 147 countries.  For more information, log onto www.AmeriCares.org.

SOURCE AmeriCares

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