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Friday, November 26, 2010

Haiti, ten months later

It has now been nearly ten months since the devastating January earthquake struck Haiti, reducing Port-au-Prince to rubble and claiming over 300,000 lives. In the time since, Haiti's government, the United Nations, and many other aid agencies have struggled just to keep the population healthy and fed as it tries get back on its feet. Recent weeks have seen an outbreak of cholera, which has killed more than 300 people. The cholera strain is not native to Haiti, and reportedly matches strains found in South Asia, placing suspicion on U.N. personnel from that area who were stationed nearby. Some 1.3 million people are still crammed into thousands of makeshift camps dotted around the capital, leaving them vulnerable to both disease outbreaks and the elements - of particular concern as Tropical Storm Tomas now approaches, and may grow to Hurricane strength by landfall on Friday
1. A rooster stands on the roof of an abandoned aircraft in a camp set up for Jan. 12 earthquake victims on an abandoned air strip in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Wednesday, September 29th, 2010. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
2. A wider view of a tent city set up for earthquake victims in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Wednesday, September 29th, 2010. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
3. An earthquake survivor drinks water from a well in a provisional camp at downtown Port-au-Prince October 30, 2010. (REUTERS/ Eduardo Munoz)
4. A cholera patient is brought into a hospital run by the Haitian government where Doctors Without Borders is treating people with cholera October 30, 2010 in St. Marc, Haiti. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
5. A Public Health civil servant sticks posters with information on cholera around Dajabon, in the Dominican Republic, in the border with Haiti, on October 27, 2010. (ERIKA SANTELICES/AFP/Getty Images)
6. A man suffering from cholera rests in bed at a rural hospital on October 28, 2010 in L'Arcahaie, Haiti. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
7. A youth uses a hammer to demolish his home near the National Palace, in the Fort Nationale neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Monday Sept. 20, 2010. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
8. Photos of Lesly Voltaire, of the Ansanm nou fo party, or "Together we are strong" party, left, Charles Henry Baker, of the RESPE party, or "Respect" party center and Jean Hector Anacasis, of the Modejahthe party, or "Democratic Movement of the Haitian Youth", all three presidential candidates for Haiti's general elections, are hung from a fence surrounding the earthquake-damaged National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Monday, Oct. 11, 2010. Haiti will hold elections Nov. 28. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
9. Bazelais Suy returns to his room after working with rehab therapists at Glencrest Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Chicago, Illinois. Suy is a Haitian student activist whose spine was crushed when a university building collapsed in Haiti's catastrophic earthquake last January. He was airlifted to Chicago for six months of intensive rehabilitation and recently returned to Haiti with hopes of helping rebuild the country. Photo taken on June 22, 2010. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
10. After an 8-month separation, Abby Emile, 3, from Haiti, is reunited with her mother, Lynda Maurice in Boston, Massachusetts on August 14th, 2010. Lynda had flown to the United States on a visa in December of 2009, to be with her husband. A problem with immigration paperwork meant young Abby had to stay behind in Haiti with relatives for a short while - then the Earthquake hit in January, and eight more months would pass until Abby was able to be with her parents once more. (Boston Globe/Kayana Szymczak)
11. Haitians in Port-au-Prince walk the dark streets of downtown on August 3, 2010. (Boston Globe/Essdras M Suarez)
12. (1 of 2) A "before" photograph shows Haitians walking in a badly damaged street after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince, on February 3, 2010. See below for the "after" photo. (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz)
13. (2 of 2) An "after" photograph from September 30, 2010 - seven months later - shows Haitians walking on the same street as above. By some estimates, only 2 percent of the 250 million cubic meters of debris in Port-au-Prince has been cleared, for reasons ranging from lack of equipment and money to an abysmal property records system. Meanwhile, most Haitians just live and work around the piles of debris. (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz)
14. A hot dog vendor works in downtown Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday Oct. 8, 2010. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
15. A resident crosses a dirty drain which leads into the sea at downtown Port-au-Prince October 29, 2010. (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz)
16. An employee of Haiti's Ministry of Health shows a device that measures the level of chlorine in the water stored in plastic tanks that is consumed by earthquake survivors at a refugee camp in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Oct. 25, 2010. The Haitian government is conducting tests in the camps around the capital and purifying the water with chlorine tablets in order to avoid the spread of the cholera outbreak that killed more than 250 people in rural Haiti. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
17. A tanker truck deposits excrement from the Nepali UN base in an area 400 meters away from the base in Mirebalais, Haiti, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010. U.N. investigators took samples of foul-smelling waste flowing behind a Nepalese peacekeeping base toward an infected river system on Wednesday, following persistent accusations that excrement from the newly arrived unit caused the epidemic that has sickened more than 4,000 people in the earthquake-ravaged nation. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
18. A girl makes her way to school in downtown In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
19. People take part in a Voodoo ritual at the start of Fet Gede celebrations, or days of the dead, at the national cemetery in Port-au-Prince on Monday Nov. 1, 2010. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
20. A woman takes part in a Voodoo ritual at the start of Fet Gede celebrations at the national cemetery in Port-au-Prince on Monday Nov. 1, 2010. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
21. Rain pours through the roof in a ward full of cholera patients at the Charles Colimon hospital in Petite Riviere, on the Artibonite river, believed to be the source of Haiti's cholera outbreak, 140km north of Port-au-Prince, on October 28, 2010. (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
22. A man holds the hand of his son suffering from dehydration and diarrhea while being treated at the Charles Colimon Hospital in Petite Riviere, on October 28, 2010. (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
23. Hospital workers burn medical waste behind a hospital that is treating cholera patients October 30, 2010 in St. Marc, Haiti. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
24. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton speaks with a resident as he walks through the 55,000 resident tent camp at the Petionville Club run by the J/P Haitian Relief Organization in Port au Prince October 6, 2010. The Clinton Foundation announced on Wednesday that it will provide $500,000 to help continue management of the camp, run by U.S. actor Sean Penn. (REUTERS/Allison Shelley)
25. A child reaches out for a stuffed animal hanging to dry at the Caradeux Camp for people displaced by the January earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
26. Girls walk through a refugee camp in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Oct. 13, 2010. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)
27. Nathalia Labonte, who has a ten-month old baby, lost her husband during the January earthquake. She is among the more than 4,000 plus people that live at the St. Therese tent camp in Petionville, Haiti. Photographed on August 2, 2010. (Essdras M Suarez/ Globe Staff)/ MET
28. Adonia Bathelemyse watches as a hospital worker dresses the body of her mother Serette Pierre, who died of cholera recently October 29, 2010 in at a hospital in St. Marc, Haiti. Pierre died the same day she contracted cholera. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
29. Misthaki Pierre cries after the burial of his mother, Serette Pierre, who died of cholera October 29, 2010 in Back D' Aguin, Haiti. Her death has left Misthaki without a mother or father. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
30. The coffin of Jonathan Daniel, 34, who died suddenly of cholera is placed in a grave October 30, 2010 in Dubuission, Haiti. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
31. A woman lies on the ground, overcome with grief during the funeral for Jonathan Daniel, who died of cholera on October 30, 2010 in Dubuission, Haiti. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
32. Two men remove rubble from a building destroyed by the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Aug. 25, 2010. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)
33. A woman and her child stand outside of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption church which was destroyed in the January 12 earthquake on November 2, 2010 in Port au Prince, Haiti. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
34. People participate in the distribution of cholera protection kits by a French non-governmental organization (NGO) October 30, 2010 in Dubuisson, Haiti. The NGO, Acted, gave a demonstration on sanitary precautions and distributed water purification kits to residents in the community which has witnessed numerous cases of cholera. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
35. Men bathe in puddled water on a street in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
36. People watch as a boat leaves the harbor in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Friday Oct. 15, 2010. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
37. A view of the destroyed neighborhood of Fort-Liberte in Port-au-Prince October 1, 2010. (REUTERS/ Eduardo Munoz)
38. Journalists interview a man who was detained near the National Penitentiary during a prisoners' uprising in downtown Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 17, 2010. U.N. police spokesman Jean-Francois Vezina said seven foreign hostages were held briefly by prisoners during the unrest at the prison, but were freed and according to Haiti's law enforcement officials, three inmates were killed. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
39. People walk through a tent camp for individuals who lost their homes in the January 12 earthquake November 2, 2010 in Port au Prince, Haiti. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
40. A child holds her dinner in a tent camp for individuals who have lost their homes in the January 12 earthquake in Cite Soleil, a historically impoverished area of Port au Prince October 31, 2010 in Port au Prince, Haiti. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
41. An earthquake survivor washes his hands in a bucket, donated by Haiti's Red Cross to control infections, near a damaged helicopter in a provisional camp in downtown Port-au-Prince October 30, 2010. (REUTERS/ Eduardo Munoz)
42. Children stand in a camp for individuals who have lost their homes in the January 12 earthquake in Cite Soleil, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on October 31, 2010. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)