357,759 Haitians Get De-worming Treatment

Newsletter, January 12, 2010

A child receives a de-worming pill

Haitian Director Dalebrun Esther has nearly completed distribution of our first purchase of 400,000 Albendazole pills. The pill de-worms children and adults.

Beginning with 65,000 people in Port-au-Prince reached through our local water boards, Dalebrun built a network of officials in outlying towns in Grand Anse and eight other regions of Haiti to distribute Albendazole.

Our report to the Pan American Health Organization is attached showing each province of Haiti with who was treated.

We reported 110,827 preschoolers – 3 years to 6 – got treated, 90,768 in the 6 to 14 year range, and at 15 years and older 79,410 women and 76,754 men.

We were so impressed by Dalebrun's success in building a Haiti-wide network that we purchased another 1 million Albendazole tablets at $7500. Nearly every Haitian has worms of several varieties, and a single dose of the de-worming pill removes them for one year.

A woman receives a
de-worming pill

Worms take calories received by already underfed kids, slowing growth and retarding mental development. With chronic diarrhea from dirty water, the burden of worms affects nearly every Haitian.

In 2010, International Action will continue to offer church, municipal, neighborhood and other groups access to Albendazole tablets for free. A research team from Notre Dame University will be conducting a survey of the impact of Albendazole in Haiti during the same period.

—Lindsay Mattison and Youngmin Chang

You can see how many de-worming pills have been distributed in Dalebrun Esther's online report.

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