A new mosquito-borne illness has been detected in Haiti
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES – The Miami Herald
There is a new mosquito-borne illness in Haiti.
Infectious disease specialists at the University of Florida say they have confirmed the existence of the Mayaro virus in a patient in Haiti. The virus is closely related to the chikungunya virus but researchers say they do not yet know if it’s caused by the same Aedes aegypti mosquito that’s been linked to chikungunya and the Zika virus.
“We are not sure,” said Dr. John Lednicky, a University of Florida associate professor in the environmental and global health department of the College of Public Health and Health Professions. “Many different mosquitoes can carry the same virus.”
Lednicky, who runs UF’s laboratory in Haiti, said the Mayaro virus first was found in Trinidad and Tobago in 1954, and has been causing outbreaks in South America, mainly in the Amazon. It causes similar symptoms to chikungunya: fever, joint and muscle pain, rashes and abdominal pain.
“One can say it’s as bad as chikungunya, but there is so little information available,” he said. “Maybe it’s been in Haiti this whole time and no one checked for it.”
Whether the confirmed case signals the start of a new outbreak in the Caribbean region, researchers do not know, Lednicky said. Nor do they know if the virus is going to be widespread in Haiti where the Zika virus has been difficult to track because of the country’s weak health system.
“We would like to do a lot more but our hands are quite tied,” he said. “We would really like to help in Haiti... and look into which mosquitoes are carrying this virus.”
It was Lednicky and his team of researchers who earlier this year announced that the Zika virus had been present in the hemisphere months before it was confirmed in Brazil in March 2015. It was in Haiti as early as 2014, they said, citing blood samples collected in December 2014. The lab had begun monitoring chikungunya fever cases after its April 2014 outbreak in Haiti and had collected blood samples from schoolchildren in the Gressier/Leogane region, southwest of Port-au-Prince, where the laboratory is located.
Lednicky said the new Mayaro virus is different from what they found in 2014.
“The virus we detected is genetically different from the ones that have been described recently in Brazil, and we don’t know yet if it is unique to Haiti or if it is a recombinant strain from different types of Mayaro viruses,” he said.
On Thursday, the university announced that the National Institutes of Health awarded it more than $1.75 million to study the Zika virus. The funding will support the laboratory’s ongoing Zika research in Haiti.
“Any little bit helps,” Lednicky said. “A lot more money would be useful. It’s very difficult to do this type of work and do it well unless you have a lot of funding, and you also have to train the people to do this work.”
In addition to the NIH funding, Bernard Okech, an associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Global Health, received a $100,000 award from the USDA to support his research into the mosquitoes that transmit the Zika virus. He studies mosquito-borne diseases at the Haiti lab.
“Not only are we doing great research on the Zika virus, but for the first time we’re also getting awards to support that research,” said Dr. J. Glenn Morris, director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute. “The funds we are receiving to support our research on the Zika outbreaks in the Caribbean will help us begin to understand the risk to Florida.”
DONALD TRUMP VISITS MIAMI’S LITTLE HAITI
By Jacqueline Charles – The Miami Herald
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump met with a small group of Haitian Americans Friday in Little Haiti, telling them that they share “a lot of common values” and the country deserved better than Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Clinton, Trump said, failed Haiti when it needed help the most.
“Clinton was responsible for doing things a lot of the Haitian people are not happy with,” Trump said from prepared remarks, referring to the aftermath of Haiti’s devastating Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake. “Taxpayer dollars intended for Haiti and the earthquake victims went to a lot of the Clinton cronies.”
Later, Trump told the crowd that he had come to “listen and learn” and to build a new relationship with the community.
“Whether you vote for me or not I really want to be your biggest champion,” he said.
There was no news from the candidate during the 26-minute discussion, in which attendees questioned him about his position on school choice. They also complained about the Clintons’ two-decade-plus involvement in Haiti.
“I didn’t understand, now I understand it,” Trump said in reference to many Haitians’ feelings about the Clintons.
Outside of his prepared remarks, Trump said very little during the meeting at the Little Haiti Cultural Center’s adjoining marketplace and visitor center before he was ushered out to his next stop. A few protesters held signs saying, “Little Haiti says No to Trump’s racism and hate.”
Trump was introduced by Georges Saati, a controversial blogger in the Haitian community, who told the room that this was the first time that a U.S. presidential candidate had visited the community. The remarks earned Trump applause from attendees, several of whom said they went because they were curious and wanted to hear what Trump had to say. Most of their remarks to the candidate focused on their personal disappointment over the lack of progress in Haiti despite the involvement of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
“The fact that he came here is everything for us as Haitians,” said Monique DieuJuste, 41, a Lauderhill residents who works as a registered respiratory therapist.
DieuJuste, who is registered with no party affiliation, said she plans to vote for Trump because the “Clintons haven’t done anything for us.”
As for Trump’s controversial stances on immigration, which many Haitians remain concerned about, DieuJuste said while she too has her concerns, he won her over with his support for possibly sending a Haitian-American as ambassador to Haiti should he be elected.
Attendees included Haitian doctors, lawyers and former Haiti government ministers. Ringo Cayard, a Haitian community activist who help put the event together, said it’s time for the Haitian-American vote to stop being taken for granted.
“I want them to listen to Trump and to listen to Hillary and then decide,” he said.
Leonce Thelusma, a former Haitian finance minister and a registered Republican, said his support for Trump will depend on the candidate’s stance on helping Haiti and Haitians. Clinton, he said, has little to show for her and her husband’s involvement in Haiti, where most recently Bill Clinton served as U.N. special envoy and czar of the recovery effort after the quake.
“No Haitian has benefited from that,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that we don’t have any institutions in Haiti that can call him and demand that he gives an account of the [earthquake] money.”
HAITIANS ARE BEGINNING TO BE EXILED FROM GUIANA
Last week, about fifteen Haitian migrants with irregular immigration status were expelled from French Guiana and repatriated by air to Port-au-Prince.
The operation was carried out after the decision of the Prefecture last August, to suspend asylum applications because of the massive secret arrival in Guiana of immigrants, most of whom of Haitian origin, since the beginning of the year. About 4,000 files cases of asylum seekers were in progress in August, according to the French Office of Protection of the Refugees and Stateless persons (OFPRA).
It should be reminded that following a complaint from France, Suriname a nearby country, which is used as footbridge by illegal Haitian migrants to enter French Guiana, was forced to impose a visa on Haitian, effective September 15th, 2016 http: // www.haitilibre.com/article-18549-haiti-flash-suriname-visa-obligatoire-pour-le - haitiens.html
JEANS BERTRAND ARISTIDE EXPERIENCE HEALTH TROUBLE WHILE CAMPAIGNING IN CAP HAITIAN
(Haiti Libre) Last Saturday while at the Mont-Joli Hotel, in Cap-Haïtien, former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide gave a press briefing a day after he was hospitalized for fainting after a speech. He wanted to reassure the population about his health. He also encouraged the population to beware of disputes, slander, the malicious gossip and all quibbles, that some are using destabilize others.
"… I thank all the people who thought of me, a special thank you to the medical team who took care of me yesterday evening to the Hospital Justinien of Cap-Haïtien… I was also pleased that among the doctors there was the future president of Haiti Dr. Maryse Narcisse.
Haïti-Justice / kidnapping: will Clifford Brandt appeal or not of his condemnation to 18 years of hard labor?
(Alter Presse) Haitian Businessman Clifford Brandt rejected the verdict, concerning his implication in the kidnapping and the detention of two children, but his lawyers did not indicate whether or not he is going to appeal.
The verdict, pronounced on Tuesday, September 13th, 2016, by Judge Joseph Jeudilien Fanfan, without a jury, condemns Brandt to 18 years of hard labor, for his implication in the kidnapping and the detention of Nicolas and Coralie Moscoso.
The entrepreneur moves forward that there is nothing which proves that there was a conversation between him and the people who kidnapped the children.
"Among all of the play by plays, presented before the court, nothing showed that my telephone was used within the framework of texts messages with the kidnappers," he protested, immediately after the reading of the verdict by the judge.
Contacted by AlterPresse, one of Brandt’s lawyres did not want to discuss the question by the telephone. Brandt, is the second condemned persons in this affair. He had up to 5 days to appeal the judgment.
After more than 4 years of detentions, Carline Richema and Sawadienne Jean were anxious to enjoy their freedom, due to insufficient evidence.
Brandt condemned for kidnapping
- By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Sep 14, 2016, 4:35 PM ET
A man from a wealthy Haitian family has been convicted of running a kidnapping ring that preyed on other members of the elite in this impoverished country.
Clifford Brandt, who briefly escaped during a mass jail uprising in 2014, was convicted of charges that included kidnapping and sentenced to 18 years of hard labor at a hearing Tuesday (September, 13) before an investigative judge in the capital,Port-au-Prince.
Judge Jeudilien Fanfan Joseph also convicted two co-defendants, Ricot Pierre-Val, who sentenced to 18 years, and Carlo Bendel Saint-Fort, who got a 19-year sentence. He found two others not guilty and ordered their immediate release.
Brandt, 45, was first jailed in 2012 for allegedly kidnapping two adult children of another wealthy family and demanding a ransom of $2.5 million. A 2012 report from Haiti's National Human RightsDefense Network alleged that Brandt was the leader of a kidnapping gang that had at least 13 victims.
He escaped from a maximum-security lockup in a mass breakout in 2014 but was recaptured a couple of days later near the Dominican border.
A new mosquito-borne illness has been detected in Haiti
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
There is a new mosquito-borne illness in Haiti.
Infectious disease specialists at the University of Florida say they have confirmed the existence of the Mayaro virus in a patient in Haiti. The virus is closely related to the chikungunya virus but researchers say they do not yet know if it’s caused by the same Aedes aegypti mosquito that’s been linked to chikungunya and the Zika virus.
“We are not sure,” said Dr. John Lednicky, a University of Florida associate professor in the environmental and global health department of the College of Public Health and Health Professions. “Many different mosquitoes can carry the same virus.”
Lednicky, who runs UF’s laboratory in Haiti, said the Mayaro virus first was found in Trinidad and Tobago in 1954, and has been causing outbreaks in South America, mainly in the Amazon. It causes similar symptoms to chikungunya: fever, joint and muscle pain, rashes and abdominal pain.
“One can say it’s as bad as chikungunya, but there is so little information available,” he said. “Maybe it’s been in Haiti this whole time and no one checked for it.”
Whether the confirmed case signals the start of a new outbreak in the Caribbean region, researchers do not know, Lednicky said. Nor do they know if the virus is going to be widespread in Haiti where the Zika virus has been difficult to track because of the country’s weak health system.
“We would like to do a lot more but our hands are quite tied,” he said. “We would really like to help in Haiti... and look into which mosquitoes are carrying this virus.”
It was Lednicky and his team of researchers who earlier this year announced that the Zika virus had been present in the hemisphere months before it was confirmed in Brazil in March 2015. It was in Haiti as early as 2014, they said, citing blood samples collected in December 2014. The lab had begun monitoring chikungunya fever cases after its April 2014 outbreak in Haiti and had collected blood samples from schoolchildren in the Gressier/Leogane region, southwest of Port-au-Prince, where the laboratory is located.
Lednicky said the new Mayaro virus is different from what they found in 2014.
“The virus we detected is genetically different from the ones that have been described recently in Brazil, and we don’t know yet if it is unique to Haiti or if it is a recombinant strain from different types of Mayaro viruses,” he said.
On Thursday, the university announced that the National Institutes of Health awarded it more than $1.75 million to study the Zika virus. The funding will support the laboratory’s ongoing Zika research in Haiti.
“Any little bit helps,” Lednicky said. “A lot more money would be useful. It’s very difficult to do this type of work and do it well unless you have a lot of funding, and you also have to train the people to do this work.”
In addition to the NIH funding, Bernard Okech, an associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Global Health, received a $100,000 award from the USDA to support his research into the mosquitoes that transmit the Zika virus. He studies mosquito-borne diseases at the Haiti lab.
“Not only are we doing great research on the Zika virus, but for the first time we’re also getting awards to support that research,” said Dr. J. Glenn Morris, director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute. “The funds we are receiving to support our research on the Zika outbreaks in the Caribbean will help us begin to understand the risk to Florida.”
DONALD TRUMP VISITS LITTLE HAITI, MIAMI
By Jacqueline Charles
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump met with a small group of Haitian Americans Friday in Little Haiti, telling them that they share “a lot of common values” and the country deserved better than Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Clinton, Trump said, failed Haiti when it needed help the most.
“Clinton was responsible for doing things a lot of the Haitian people are not happy with,” Trump said from prepared remarks, referring to the aftermath of Haiti’s devastating Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake. “Taxpayer dollars intended for Haiti and the earthquake victims went to a lot of the Clinton cronies.”
Later, Trump told the crowd that he had come to “listen and learn” and to build a new relationship with the community.
“Whether you vote for me or not I really want to be your biggest champion,” he said.
There was no news from the candidate during the 26-minute discussion, in which attendees questioned him about his position on school choice. They also complained about the Clintons’ two-decade-plus involvement in Haiti.
“I didn’t understand, now I understand it,” Trump said in reference to many Haitians’ feelings about the Clintons.
Outside of his prepared remarks, Trump said very little during the meeting at the Little Haiti Cultural Center’s adjoining marketplace and visitor center before he was ushered out to his next stop. A few protesters held signs saying, “Little Haiti says No to Trump’s racism and hate.”
Trump was introduced by Georges Saati, a controversial blogger in the Haitian community, who told the room that this was the first time that a U.S. presidential candidate had visited the community. The remarks earned Trump applause from attendees, several of whom said they went because they were curious and wanted to hear what Trump had to say. Most of their remarks to the candidate focused on their personal disappointment over the lack of progress in Haiti despite the involvement of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
“The fact that he came here is everything for us as Haitians,” said Monique DieuJuste, 41, a Lauderhill residents who works as a registered respiratory therapist.
DieuJuste, who is registered with no party affiliation, said she plans to vote for Trump because the “Clintons haven’t done anything for us.”
As for Trump’s controversial stances on immigration, which many Haitians remain concerned about, DieuJuste said while she too has her concerns, he won her over with his support for possibly sending a Haitian-American as ambassador to Haiti should he be elected.
Attendees included Haitian doctors, lawyers and former Haiti government ministers. Ringo Cayard, a Haitian community activist who help put the event together, said it’s time for the Haitian-American vote to stop being taken for granted.
“I want them to listen to Trump and to listen to Hillary and then decide,” he said.
Leonce Thelusma, a former Haitian finance minister and a registered Republican, said his support for Trump will depend on the candidate’s stance on helping Haiti and Haitians. Clinton, he said, has little to show for her and her husband’s involvement in Haiti, where most recently Bill Clinton served as U.N. special envoy and czar of the recovery effort after the quake.
“No Haitian has benefited from that,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that we don’t have any institutions in Haiti that can call him and demand that he gives an account of the [earthquake] money.”
CAN UPSCALE CHOCOLATE TURN THE TIDE ON HAITI’S DEVASTATING DEFORESTATION?
With 98 percent of their trees gone, Haitians eye cocoa-based agroforestry as a way to combat poverty and renew the land.
September 14, 2016 —When a tiny Quebec chocolate maker wona gold prizeat this year’s premier International Chocolate Awards for a bar made with Haitian cocoa beans, it rocked the specialty chocolate world. The cocoa beans had been on the market for less than a year, and a Haitian chocolate bar had never before received the award.
Haiti produces less than 1 percent of the world’s cocoa. But today, cocoa industry players are aiming to put the Caribbean nation on the craft quality chocolate map, while providing some of the world’s poorest farmers with a better life and stemming the forces that have left Haiti a near moonscape. Stunningly 98 percent deforested, Haiti is an environmental mess, vulnerable to devastating floods and mudslides.
Efforts to connect poor cocoa farmers in Haiti to consumers willing to pay upwards of US$8 for a single chocolate bar are part of a much broader movement within the development community to combat global poverty and protect natural resources through access to such specialty markets.
But can these efforts make a difference in tackling some of the key drivers of environmental degradation? And can they do it at a scale that actually transforms struggling rural economies?
Reforesting Haiti With Tree Crops
Grinding poverty is a root cause for Haiti’s deforestation. Per capita income was just US$828 in 2015, and two-thirds of Haitians are subsistence farmers. The vast majority cook their food with wood charcoal. Charcoal production fuels deforestation, which leads to soil erosion, loss of productive agricultural land and a vicious cycle of poverty.
An estimated 50 percent of Haitian topsoil has washed away, destroying Haiti’s farmland and contributing to crop losses that reached70 percentin some places in the face of extreme drought this year.
Cocoa is a tree crop that grows well in agroforestry systems, which is why Ralph Denize of FOMIN (Multilateral Investment Fund) says, “Cocoa is one of the best crops you can use for reforesting the country.”
Larger coconut, breadfruit, mango and avocado trees tower over and offer shade to the smaller cocoa trees, as well as food for the farmers and habitat for birds and other animals. Cocoa farms are in fact one of the few places in Haiti with standing trees.
“As long as the market is stable and farmers can depend on it, those trees will be in the ground for at least 40 years,” adds Emily Stone, founder of Uncommon Cacao.
Currently, some 20,000 smallholder farmers harvest cocoa as a cash crop in what they call “creole gardens” in two regions of Haiti. But, “garden” is a misnomer, because these dense tangles of vegetation, averaging an acre (half a hectare) in size, form mini-forests. Larger coconut, breadfruit, mango and avocado trees tower over and offer shade to the smaller cocoa trees, as well as food for the farmers and habitat for birds and other animals.
Cocoa farms are in fact one of the few places in Haiti with standing trees, according to Patrick Dessources fromRoot Capital, which finances small agricultural businesses and is partnering with FOMIN and other groups to rebuild Haiti’s cocoa industry.
Haiti currently exports 4,000 metric tons (4,400 tons) of cocoa per year, a big drop from its peak of 20,000 metric tons (22,000 tons) in the 1960s and far less than neighboring Dominican Republic, which exported 70,000 metric tons (77,000 tons) in 2014.
Revitalizing Haiti’s Cocoa Sector
Revitalizing Haiti’s cocoa industry can help reforest the country, but key to that revitalization is building capacity for producing the high-quality fermented cocoa beans that are used by specialty and dark chocolate manufacturers, likePalette de Bine, the award winner. Those beans fetch higher prices that help farmers live better.
As Denize puts it, “moving from unfermented to fermented cocoa is about keeping the value added in the country.”
Currently, more than 90 percent of Haiti’s cocoa beans are sold and exported in their raw, unprocessed state for mass-produced chocolate because farmers have few options for fermenting their beans. Currently there are only three fermentation facilities in the country.