Cholera Resurgence Prompts Swift Deliveries

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Haiti is in the midst of a complex humanitarian crisis, seriously impeding Haitians’ access to healthcare, both for medical staff and patients. Reports of kidnappings and attacks force many to avoid seeking care for fear they may get trapped in the violence. Medical personnel struggle to reach their health facilities as barricades have been set up across the country. Transport and supply of equipment and medicines face extra roadblocks due to the shortage of fuel. In spite of all this, our USAID Global Health Supply Chain Program-Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM) team in Haiti has delivered critically needed health supplies.

The high functioning of GHSC-PSM’s Haiti warehousing and distribution team has allowed health commodity deliveries to go uninterrupted, thanks to agile planning, scheduling adjustments, and constant communication with third-party logistics (3PL) service providers. This has been especially critical with the resurgence of cholera that began in Haiti in October 2022.

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Reliable partners in delivering Cholera emergency supplies
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GHSC-PSM has been supporting the Government of Haiti to manage the cholera outbreak by delivering oral rehydration salts, zinc, and select antibiotics to facilities. These commodities are commonly procured by donors and governments to support maternal and child health. The project was selected as a partner by USAID’s emergency response teams—the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) and Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART)—due to its capabilities in warehousing and distribution, and commodity tracking. These capabilities have allowed the project to successfully manage receipt, storage and distribution of urgent deliveries of cholera commodities. GHSC-PSM’s responsiveness and excellence was commended by its partners, who noted that the project’s support allowed products to arrive in the country within five weeks of BHA’s initial order.

“It was a pleasure to meet the dedicated professionals of [GHSC-PSM] and to learn about the creative approaches they developed to overcome the myriad challenges and obstacles of implementing health projects in Haiti; my sincere appreciation [goes out] for their dedication to their work and to improving the lives of Haitians.”
– Eric Stromayer, Chargé D’Affaires, US Embassy in Haiti


More than 164 pallets of commodities were procured with funds donated by USAID and the US Department of Defense. GHSC-PSM distributed these supplies to 270 health facilities in January 2023. The project is now using its global supply chain channels to help in another way, by procuring approximately $500,000 of additional cholera commodities for Haitian health facilities.