Assessing the public health crisis in Haiti: The experiences of the Shands/University of Florida public health team, ”Santè pou Lavi”

Six days after the 7.0-magnitude Haiti earthquake, Ms. Celeste, MPH, joined a team of providers and public health experts travelling to Haiti to provide care and assess the disaster. During their 8-day trip, the team provided medical care to earthquake victims in a town near Port-au-Prince. While there, Ms. Celeste (a Haiti native) searched for and found her missing mother and grandmother, both of whom lived close to the quake's fault line but survived the disaster. Ms. Celeste and the rest of the Shands/UF team (nicknamed “Santè pou Lavi,” or Creole for “Health for Life”) returned in April 2010 to further address local public health needs. The team identified four major public health concerns that must be addressed in future trips to Haiti: • Malaria detection and screening, • Clean water assessment, • Health education for teachers, parents and children, and • Health data tracking and basic medical care for children in a local orphanage.