Haiti: Hospitals face critical oxygen shortages and warn of lack of fluids to treat cholera

A shortage of oxygen is the latest health crisis to hit Haiti where the scarcity is preventing hospitals from providing critical medical treatment.

The lack of supplies is largely affecting public hospitals outside the capital, where the inability to carry out procedures like caesarean sections is causing unnecessary deaths.

“Normally we support hospitals across the country with medical oxygen and our partners ensure all the equipment is functioning,” said Magda Cheron, who directs FHI 360’s project to supply oxygen to public hospitals across Haiti. “But currently the technical team can’t travel to repair the equipment. With the security as it is on the roads, we can’t even safely send filled oxygen cylinders.” FHI 360 is a human development organisation based in North Carolina.

Port-Au-Prince has been acutely hit by a series of severe and overlapping …