Port-au-Prince, august 29th, 2015 --- Over 200 people attended the fourth mobile clinic held in ¨Baie d´Orange¨, a landlocked town in the commune of Belle Anse (Southeast of Haiti), on August 26th, 2015, by the Ministry of Public Health and Population (MOH), through the Sanitary Direction of Southeast (SDSE), with the support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
No less than 138 people, including 112 women and 26 men, were seen at the general clinic. The majority of cases received : dermatosis (skin diseases), epigastric pain and infections.
In the pediatric clinic, 38 people were consulted, including 22 girls and 16 boys.
Of the 16 pregnant women received, only one had been in consultation before. ¨Suffice to say they might deliver without being consulted¨, reports the departmental epidemiologist, Miss Germaine Pierre Louis.
Of the 28 women who chose a family planning method (FP), 17 opted for Jadelle, commonly known ¨5 years method¨, and 11 for DMPA, commonly referred to ¨three months method¨.
Marie Lucie Cécile chose the implant (Jadelle). This 32 year old woman has five children, the eldest is 12 and the youngest seven months. ¨I came to the clinic so that they can help me not having children, because life is very hard¨.
Unlike Cécile, Thérèse Dalvi has followed a long term family planning method since 2012 and says she has not encountered any particular problem. She invited other women to cling to the Family Planning. This woman of 35, who has eight dependent children, had had the first one at 12 years old. ¨I have plenty of children whose I can not take care. I can not even send them to school¨.
People were thirsty of the clinic. They were there early in the morning and we finished very late, or early evening, says the Head of Reproductive Health at the Sanitary Direction of Southeast, Dr Josette Sanon.
But despite the displayed satisfaction, the Sanitary Direction of Southeast recalls that the mobile clinic is only a palliative. ¨Eventually, the area must have a health center, allowing its inhabitants to find the service when they need it¨, said Miss Germaine Pierre Louis.
Besides health, sexual and reproductive in particular, all basic services including water and electricity, are almost non-existent in Baie d´Orange. The Ministry of Public Health and Population and UNFPA have conducted, in recent years, an awareness and advocacy campaign on the situation of this locality, through, inter alia, the broadcasting of a documentary.
