Security is indispensable to address the “complex” health and humanitarian situation in Haiti, plunged for years into a crisis that has been aggravated in more recent times by armed violence, warned the Pan American Health Organization (PAHo).

“Nothing can happen if there is insecurity,” the representative of PAHO in Haiti, the Colombian Óscar Barreneche, said categorically in a telephone interview with EFE.

The severity of the crisis affects vital sectors such as health and education and, although the most affected city is Port-au-Prince, other demarcations do not escape this situation either, said Barreneche, a doctor by profession.

Faced with this panorama, Barreneche called on the international community “not to forget the promised support” to the depressed country, which is preparing to soon receive the deployment of the Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS), which will lead Kenya and which has the approval of the United Nations.

“Without the return of security, it is difficult to guarantee services” in Haiti, he said.

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For decades, this country, the poorest in America, has been going from crisis to crisis, including the one resulting from the powerful earthquake of 2010 that caused about 300,000 deaths, the outbreak of cholera that arose that same year and that ended the lives of thousands of people and the successive hurricanes that have only aggravated the situation.

Many times Haiti “has had to respond simultaneously to several crises at the same time,” which “puts pressure on the health system,” as is currently the case, when armed violence is added to the already deteriorated situation, which prevents professionals from providing an adequate service, this specialist said.

This “definitely affects the performance of the country,” which has the highest rate in maternal mortality in the region, according to Barreneche.

Haiti has “serious problems” of access to hospital care, medicines or vaccines due to the critical situation of insecurity, which also has consequences on health personnel, according to the PAHO representative, who, however, stressed that both the Government and humanitarian organizations “continue to work” to try to alleviate the crisis.

A good number of Haitian doctors have decided to go abroad, especially to the United States and Canada, fleeing the precarious situation.

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In some areas it is estimated that between 15% and 20% of health personnel have emigrated, a percentage that can reach up to 30% in other departments of the Caribbean country, said Barreneche, who described the situation as “a hemorrhage of human resources” of health, although, in his opinion, it is something “understandable” given the current panorama.

This represents “a huge problem,” to which is added that only 18% of Haitian hospitals are operating at 100% of their capacity, which causes the saturation of services.

42% is not working or is closed and 37% is operating in a reduced way, explained the representative of PAHO, an organization that collaborates in centers such as La Paix University Hospital and Eliazar Germain Hospital, both in Port-au-Prince, in supplies or programs with pregnant women.

PAHO also cooperates with Haiti on issues such as cholera, the situation of internally displaced persons and in vaccination campaigns for preventable diseases, “fundamental to guarantee a minimum of health and well-being,” he said.

At the same time, this agency is working with the authorities in the implementation of measures in the face of possible emergency situations related to the hurricane season, which began on June 1.

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In fact, Barreneche said, this week there has been a meeting “with all the humanitarian partners of the country” to “try to give the necessary support” to this issue, since this year’s is expected to be one of the most active and intense cyclonic seasons in decades.