Haiti: Building Back Better

CDC Foundation, CDC and Donors Partner to Strengthen Haiti’s Public Health Infrastructure

The CDC Foundation, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Haiti’s Ministry of Public Health and Population (Ministère de la Santé Publique et de la Population or MSPP) and the U.S. Embassy in Haiti are holding a ribbon cutting ceremony on February 25 for two new public health buildings in Port-au-Prince. These buildings were funded by more than $3.2 million in donations by CDC Foundation partners.

BACKGROUND
Since Haiti’s devastating earthquake, staff in Haiti’s MSPP has been working from temporary buildings. Two new buildings designed to provide a longer-term infrastructure solution for Haiti’s MSPP have been constructed through a partnership established by the CDC Foundation.

About the Buildings

One building replaces the MSPP facility destroyed in the earthquake. This building will serve as a central office from which all public health activities will be managed in Haiti by Dr. Florence Guillaume, Minister of Public Health and Population, and her staff. The second building for MSPP’s Division of Epidemiology, Laboratory and Research (Direction d’Epidémiologie, de Laboratoire et de Recherches or DELR) is located in the National Public Health Laboratory (Laboratoire National de Santé Publique) complex. This second building will house a portion of MSPP’s surveillance, epidemiology and laboratory staff and CDC’s staff in Haiti, who are now working side-by-side in the country. Learn More

About the Donors

The building for Haiti’s DELR and CDC staff was funded by contributions from the GE Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Kaiser Permanente provided funding for the MSPP central office. In-kind contributions were provided by Proteus On-Demand to increase the size of the MSPP building and make enhancements within the facility. Medical technology company BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), which last year donated syringes and other supplies for a national measles and rubella immunization campaign in Haiti, will also be recognized at the ribbon cutting ceremony. Learn More

About Public Health Advances in Haiti since the 2010 earthquake

		Envisioning Hope and Progress While more remains to be done in Haiti, there is considerable public health progress. Looking forward, sustaining and increasing these gains is vital to improve the health and lives of the Haitian people.
		Testing Water CDC and the Haitian government are training technicians who are routinely testing water and providing education about improved sanitation throughout the country.
		Addressing Urgent Public Health Needs CDC works in partnership with Haiti’s Ministry of Public Health and Population and the National Public Health Laboratory to train health workers to detect, investigate and control threats to public health.
		Immunizing Children Vaccination rates for children are nearly twice as high than before the earthquake. Before 2010, measles vaccine coverage was just 47 percent. Following the recent 2012 campaign, 91 percent of children sampled were vaccinated against measles-rubella.
		Protecting Lives Since the earthquake, CDC scientists and other staff have worked alongside public health workers in Haiti to assist with surveillance, strengthen Haiti’s laboratory capacity, develop and implement health training and respond to the cholera outbreak.
		Ensuring A Healthy Pregnancy Since the 2010 earthquake, more resources are available to pregnant women to ensure a healthy delivery, including HIV testing which has increased by 55 percent.