Update on the Cholera situation

Good Evening all...The news seems a bit better today.  Rose Nirva pulled through the night and continued to hang on through today, but she is still touch and go.  They had to do a cut down on her neck to find a vein yesterday to get IV's in, and were able to later transfer it to her arm.  Today the doctors felt that she had malaria on top of the cholera, so this was complicating things.  Phania (former HOH kid who was visiting and got cholera as well) seems to be doing better today.  The doctors are keeping a close watch on her, as she is 32 weeks along in her pregnancy.  They are not too worried about the baby at this point, but are ready to do a Cesarean at any moment should it be necessary.  Please continue to pray for these two.

Ronaldson, a young boy seems to be a bit worse today, so keep him in your prayers as well.  There are no new cases as of about noon today, so we thank you for this specific prayer request.  Cholera spreads incredibly fast, so this is a great tribute to some very hard work by our staff and older kids on the ground at the HOH to keep this contained.

The National Public Health officers came by the HOH today and insisted that all of our sick kids/youth be taken to the Cholera Treatment Center at our neighboring hospital.  Linda fought very hard to make them change their minds, as she felt we and our staff would take better care of them than they would get at the treatment center.  But they would not be swayed, so they spent much of this afternoon moving all the sick ones down to the hospital.  We have several of our staff who have gone down there with them to make sure they are properly looked after, but while this eliminates the chances of spread in the HOH, it complicates things for Linda as the kids are all split up now.

Thank you to those of you who have responded with help. And to all those who have prayed fervently for us.  Please continue to pray for all of the sick kids and for Linda and the other staff working hard during this tough time.