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« Back to Haiti Country Overview

Healthcare

Haiti's health indicators reflect the high levels of inequality and political insecurity exacerbated by US-imposed policies. The full role of the US in fomenting and sustaining Haiti's 1991-1994 coup d'etat is still being revealed. This period of violence and unrest degraded the health of an already vulnerable population through assaults, disease, trauma and a systematic campaign of rape and sexual torture, targeting supporters of Aristide's pro-democracy movement. The coup also brought shortages of food and medicine and the suspension of most water protection, vaccination, and health outreach programs. These conditions led to a rise in measles, tuberculosis, typhoid and complications from HIV infections that continue to plague Haiti. The spread of AIDS in Haiti, as in other poor countries, is directly related to migration and Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs). After Aristide was reinstated as president in 1994, SAPs mandated severe restrictions on government spending, effectively nullifying many of his proposed reforms to the health sector.

Today, there is one physician for every 4,000 people in Haiti.¹ Average life expectancy at birth is only 50 years,² and one in 16 women face a lifetime chance of dying during childbirth, compared to one in 10,000 in the US. Malnutrition threatens half the population, and almost five percent of Haitians are HIV-positive—the highest rate in the western hemisphere.

End Notes

1. World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/whosis/database/core/core_select_process.cfm.
2. World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/countries/hti/en/.