Health

Henri Ford in 1972 at the age of 13 fled with his family from the government of Papa Doc Duvalier in Haiti to Brooklyn. He attended Princeton University, then Harvard Medical School. After becoming a doctor, he worked as a pediatric surgeon. Dr. Henri Ford was the vice dean at the University of Southern California's med school.

In 2010, after Haiti earthquake, Dr. Henri Ford worked as volunteer in Haiti with other doctors from the University of Miami. He is the new dean of The University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine (UMMSM) which is the graduate medical school of the University of Miami. The school was founded in 1952 and is the oldest medical school in the state of Florida.

Dr. Henri Ronald Ford is a Haitian-born paediatric surgeon who always maintains close ties with his native country Haiti. Following the devastating 2010 earthquake, he returned to Haiti to provide medical assistance to earthquake victims. He has been appointed as the Dean of the University Of Miami Miller School Of Medicine, effective since June 1, 2018.

Dr. Ford was born in Haiti and spent his early years in Port-au-Prince. During the reign of Papa Doc Duvalier, 13 year old Ford fled with his family to settle among the Haitian community in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a preacher who spoke out against inequality in Haitian society. However, even after settling in the US, he returned several times in the 1990's as a visiting doctor to help provide medical care, train doctors and create healthcare infrastructure that he hoped will one day provide a better life to his countrymen on the island.

Ford's devotion to his discipline and desire to help others is never a matter of surprise to his close associates. He has always maintained that becoming the Dean of the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine was a dream to him. His association with UM started 17 years ago when his sister suffered serious burns. Her dress caught fire and she was airlifted from Haiti to Miami where she spent six weeks in the Intensive Care Burn Unit at Jackson Memorial, under the care of the physicians from UM. Eventually she made a full recovery.

Dr. Ford is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Royal College of Surgeons (England), the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, and the American Academy of Paediatrics. He received his bachelor's degree in public and international affairs, cum laude, from Princeton University, and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He also received his M.H.A. (Master of Health Administration) degree from the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California.

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Here is a picture of a Street Vendor in Haiti selling Medicine

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Hair growing tips for black men. How To Naturally Treat A Dry Scalp

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Here is a picture of Cloves or Jirof as it is called in Haitian Kreyol.

Cloves (Jirof or jiwof in Haitian Kreyol) are cultivated mostly in Brazil, the West Indies (including Haiti), Tanzania, Madagascar and India. Its strong, distinct flavor is very popular in Haitian cuisine. Clove is widely used in every popular culinary style in whole or in a grounded state to impart a strong sweet but spicy and peppery flavor. Cloves have a long shelf life, lasting up to a year, if they are kept in a cool, dark place away from light. Cloves are used in Indian Ayurvedic medicine, Chinese medicine, and western herbalism and dentistry where the essential oil (clove oil in natural form) is used as a painkiller. Both cloves and clove oil have been used in Asian cooking for over 2,000 years. Arab traders introduced cloves to Europe in the fourth century. Clove contains "eugenol" which has great medicinal value for lowering the risk of digestive tract cancers and reducing joint inflammation. It also saves you from morning sickness, vomiting and diarrhea. Cloves stuck into an orange create a lovely fragrance in the home and may actually deter flies and other insects, naturally.

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Hospital Saint Nicholas in Saint-Marc is a 300-bed facility that was badly hit by the 2010 earthquake and it has been struggling with insufficient medical professionals, equipment and supplies for a long time. In 2011, Clinton Bush Haiti Fund had granted a Fund of $1,812,220 to its sister organization Zanmi Lasante in Haiti to improve the scope and quality of the public health system in the country. The development program undertaken for Hospital Saint Nicolas will improve (a) the present doctor-patient ratio, (b) train new 18 Haitian family practice physicians, (c) retain 80 to 100 local nursing staff who will further train 1,000 health workers, and (d) increase the scope and quality of health care provided by Hospital Saint Nicholas as a referral hospital for the 1.5 million inhabitants of Artibonite region. Haiti is a country with high rates of infant mortality (58.0/1,000) where only 24% of births are attended by skilled health personnel and 523 women die for every 100,000 births and 1 in 10 children dies before the age of 5.

Contact:
Rue Pierre Pinchinat No. 16-25, Saint-Marc, Haiti; Tel: 2279-1611

Departement Artibonite, Artibonite, Deschapelles, Gonaives, Pignon, Dessalines:
Hospital Albert Schweitzer Haiti, Deschapelles (Posted already)
Hospital La Providence, Gonaïves
Hospital Bienfaisance de Pignon
Hospital Claire-Heureuse, Dessalines

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As the Florida Department of Health has confirmed the first case of Microcephaly with a Haitian national who came to give birth in Florida, many people are asking what is it exactly.

"Microcephaly "is an abnormal smallness of the head, a congenital condition associated with incomplete brain development. It is a rare nervous system disorder for which the brain does not grow at a normal pace, the skull doesn't, either. Microcephaly can be caused by a variety of genetic (Congenital Microcephaly) and environmental factors (Acquired Microcephaly). Congenital Microcephaly is passed down through families, caused by defects in genes linked to early brain development. While the latter, or Acquired Microcephaly occurs when the baby is in the womb and fell prey of certain infections Like Rubella, Zika, Toxoplasmosis, or Cytomegalovirus or severe malnutrition or exposure to harmful substances, such as alcohol, toxic chemicals, or certain drugs. Children with Microcephaly in some cases have developmental issues, mild to significant learning disabilities, speech delays, or impaired motor functions, but there are many who do not experience any difficulty at all. Microcephaly is a relatively rare disease affecting about 25,000 children in the U.S. each year.

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Is President Jocelerme Privert healthy?

On May 1, 2016, Jocelerme Privert (born 1 February 1953), the present provisional president of Haiti, could not travel to Jacmel as per earlier announcement to celebrate the Patronal feast of Saint Jacques and Philippe as well as the festival of agriculture and labor, neither he could meet personalities from various sectors as per his earlier appointments as part of the Feast of Agriculture and Labor. From the Communication office of the Presidency, it was learned that, he could not make the trip due to health issues. However, the President Privert sent his good wishes for a Happy Feast of Agriculture and Labor Day to all Haitian workers, to all sectors of national life, and to all Haitians in general.

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Picture of a slaughterhouses in the metropolitan area of Port-auprince characterized by foul odors, scattering rubbish and pests of all kinds. These places for slaughter of "meat animals" operate outside of hygiene or safety standards.

La Saline slaughterhouse in Port-au-Prince is there since 1982. It is a blood-drenched patch of land near a site which was once used for trading slaves. Today, it is an open air abattoir that supplies meat to the city. Seeing animals being killed is one thing, but hearing the sound of animals about to be killed is quite different. If you haven't heard that before, it's quite cruel and pathetic. It happens every morning well before the dawn when people from different departments of the country come to slaughter their livestock, including goats, cattle, and pigs. For the local people who live here in the impoverished shanty houses, slaughtering animals is the only means to earn their daily breads. Every day, about 150 goats and 100 pigs are killed and the merchants pay a fee of 10 to 15 gourdes per animal to the slaughterhouse administration and the slaughterers, in turn, are rewarded with pieces of meat. The open killing ground smells of dead animals, smoke and burning trash. The stench produced from burning animal skins is very distinctive. Anyone buying animal elsewhere can get it killed here for 125 gourdes. He can pay a man less than a dollar to push the carcass in a wheel barrow to the other side of the market where the animal could be sold by weight. There is no proper infrastructure and the state authority, knowing the fact that this is one of the main sources of meat to the city, prefers to keep their eyes closed.

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St. Damien Hospital is a pediatric hospital that offers best pediatric treatments in Haiti at a nominal cost. In 1998, after the submission of an investigative report on the nonexistence pediatric medical facility in Haiti by Father Richard Kay, Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (NPH) opened the first pediatric hospital, 'St. Damien' in an abandoned hotel in Petionville. Father Kay is well known in Haiti for his orphanage named St Helena intended for orphans and abandoned children.

The present St. Damien Hospital in Tabarre was opened in December 2006 to accommodate more children by replacing the earlier set up. The hospital is funded through the donations from benefactors from all around the world, especially in the U.S. and Europe. The devastating earthquake of 2010 has completely destroyed the 2006 building. Today, St. Damien Hospital in Tabarre is a referral center that provides high quality medical treatment for disadvantaged and sick children in Haiti. Most of the patients come here to treat infectious diseases like tuberculosis, HIV, malaria or kidney infection, cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

Tabarre 41 - Tabarre, Haiti

Additional Hospitals in Ouest Departement:
Hopital Georges Gauvin de Petit Goave/ Grand-Goave
Hospital Sainte-Croix, Léogâne
Hospital Universitaire de la Paix
Hospital Universite D'Etat

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EMPACT Haiti, or PAPMO, has been in operation since 2010. The program trains EMT's for the field within the country's capital. Working through the Bernard Mevs Hospital, the program's target is to serve the one million citizens of the city with critical treatment before they get to Port-au-Prince's one trauma hospital. The entities responsible for the venture have aims to expand the emergency services of EMPACT, hoping to teach thousands, impacting the entire emergency service system and calling for an increase development.

1, rue Eden, Cité de l'Exposition, Bicentenaire, Port-au-Prince Haiti
Phone: 2221-8212/8213/2709/9676.

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