Public Health
Life In Our New Clinic
Cherlie and I had a short break at the beginning of April when we went up to Milwaukee for our 6th annual Hope for Haiti fund-raising banquet. It was a wonderful event and we were able to see a lot of former acquaintances, medical colleagues, Haiti visitors and meet some wonderful new friends. Now, we’re…
Read MoreLAVE, LAVE, LAVE MEN NOU!
By Dr. Katie Wolf Okay, everybody, sing to the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”: Lave, lave, lave men nou Wash, wash, wash your hands Lave men nou chak jou. Wash your hands each day Avan w manje, apre w twalet, Before you eat, after you use the toilet E nou va gen…
Read MoreCholera reaches Port-au-Prince
The cholera epidemic has now reached Port-au-Prince, according to Haitian government health officials. Over 70 cases have been identified in people who live in Port-au-Prince, but contracted the disease while visiting outside the capital. Several cases have been reported in patients who have not left the capital city, which means that it was acquired there,…
Read MoreCholera in Haiti!!!
I’m sure you are all aware from the news channels that there has been an outbreak of cholera in Haiti. Cholera is a very deadly disease, causing severe diarrhea that leads quickly to dehydration and death. This is the first time it has been reported in Haiti and is a very serious situation on top…
Read MoreHIV in Haiti
Clarice sat in her chair on the side of the desk in my examination room, looking intently at the little test cartridge. I was talking to her as the HIV rapid test result was developing. I realized she probably wasn’t hearing much of what I said – she was concentrating on the test cartridge. I…
Read MorePublic Health Corner Summer 2009
Our overarching goal at Friends for Health in Haiti is to improve the health and change the lives and hearts of the people of Haiti. We desire to do this by providing integrated health care to patients of all ages, in a nurturing, Christian environment. We feel that it is important to maintain dignity while…
Read MoreAnother Emergency!
This afternoon we took another pediatric patient to the general hospital in Jérémie. We had seen him, a three-year old boy, last Thursday with fever and malaria. Since his father died and his mother lives in Port-au-Prince, he lives with his grandmother in a community near the clinic. We told the grandmother that if he…
Read MoreU.S. Visit and Conferences
Greetings once again from Jeremie, Haiti! As I mentioned in a previous blog, Cherlie Severe and I recently spent a few weeks in the US, attending conferences, visiting family and taking care of business related to our Haiti ministry. The first conference we attended was the annual conference for Christian Connections for International Health. This…
Read MoreUnrest Update
Today, Thursday, we were able to successfully make it up to our clinic in Gatineau without running into any problems or disturbances. There were about 6-8 places along the road coming out of town where there was black dust on the road and burned steel wires from tires which had been burned there earlier in…
Read MorePublic Health Corner Spring 2008
Medical personnel sometimes wonder what is the difference between medicine and public health? Or, as I like to phrase the question, what is the difference between the medical model of care and the public health model? Physicians are trained according to the medical model, which basically involves looking at an ill patient and deciding how…
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