Mobile clinics
Since the beginning of December 2021, MSF teams have been providing primary health care to the population of Bel-Air, one of the most vulnerable in the capital, Port-au-Prince. MSF is also working in two other areas of the city that have been particularly affected by the latest clashes between armed groups.
The waves of violence that have plagued the city for years have had a huge impact on access to basic services and in particular have affected access to healthcare. In Bel-Air there are no other functional health services, so the infected community members had no way of knowing that the itching was due to a parasite and that the condition was treatable. Yet of the hundred or so consultations that MSF medical teams make every day, around 35% are scabies patients.

Water points
In Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, problems with access to water are linked to the violence. Violence has caused widespread damage to the infrastructure. An effort was made after the earthquake in 2010 to rebuild the water distribution systems which have since been destroyed again, this time by the violence. In Bel-Air, as in other parts of the city, water is now delivered by truck. When the clashes paralyse the city, the trucks often do not dare or cannot move and the price of water increases. People therefore reduce the amount of water they use and are unable to wash themselves. This has serious repercussions on hygiene and the health of the inhabitants. The scabies epidemic can therefore be regarded as a direct consequence of this lack of water.
"My home is a 20-minute walk from here," says a woman while she moves her four 20-litre jerry cans forward in the line while awaiting to be filled at the water point. There are four of us at home and these four jerry cans will last us two days for cooking, drinking and washing. I will put jerry can on my head and carry them home one at a time. Before MSF opened this water point I used to buy water not far from my house. The price was between 25 and 50 gourdes which is very expensive so I could only afford one jerry can that I would only use for drinking" she explains.