Doctor Harold Morse and Zanmi Lasante save lives in Chapoteau

 

In the World, more than a billion people suffer from high blood pressure and nearly eight million of them die each year, for the World Health Organization. As for Haiti, the number of hypertensive cases stands at two million. Various factors, according to specialists, are responsible for this disease in the Haitian population. These can be attributed to its African origin, to genetic or genetic factors and to the factors of poverty and its corollaries.

Regarding the consequences of hypertension, they are different depending on the age groups of the people affected. This is how hypertensive people between the ages of 40 and 45 are the most affected by stroke in the country, according to data from GHESKIO center.

In Chapoteau, one of the small communities located around the artificial lake of Péligre, high blood pressure is rife. For more than one, the social conditions of this population are the main causes of this scourge in the community. The population lives below the poverty line, this situation is likely to generate stress for them ; the inhabitants are barely meeting their most preliminary needs. In addition to the economic vulnerability of the population, the cultural heritages linked to consumption are very important to the problem of hypertension. People eat a lot of salt : when preparing food, the kitchen lady not only brings in raw salt, but also adds Maggi, a very salty chemical. It is not different for sugar. Thus, despite the physical activities that are due to the long journeys on foot made by the inhabitants, there is a high number of cases of hypertension in the community.

However, all difficult situations are born a savior to bring deliverance to those who suffer, it is believed the population.

In this sense, the inhabitants believe that Doctor Harold Morse and Zanmi Lasante are the real helpers of hypertensive people in this small village, Chapoteau. Because, Doctor Morse established a program through which he endorses the cause of high blood pressure, and the community Chapoteau benefits among many other localities. While statistical data on the number of beneficiaries of the program has not been revealed, the information is not public, but testimonials from patients and others are plentiful on this subject.

Thanks to this program set up by the American doctor, free of charge, many people who suffer from high blood pressure are finding the care they need. So lives are saved. However, in the years leading up to the program, God only knows how many people have died of high blood pressure, while the population thought itself to fetish deaths, as there is no hospital in the locality. Now this is no longer the case, the management of hypertensive people is ensured in the village.

    For the World Health Organization, health is "a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being and is not the absence of disease or infirmity". In view of this definition, the people of Chapoteau are beginning to regain their physical well-being, for this they are grateful. This recognition is manifested not only in the place of Dr. Harold Morse, but it is also in Zanmi Lasante (ZL), for several reasons. On the one hand Bon Sauveur de Cange, one of the Zanmi Lasante hospitals in the country, located some six kilometers from Chapoteau, despite this long distance, it is the only hospital within the reach of the inhabitants. And on the other hand, without the existence of Zanmi Lasante it would be difficult for the American doctor to know of the existence of Chapoteau, this small remote corner in the back of the country.

Lopkendy JACOB

Lopkendyjacobrne@gmail.com