Dr. John Carroll, who works in Haiti's Cité Soleil, has a bad case of contagious anger, and I've caught it from him. Why is it bad? If you don't get angry too, you need help. From his blog on the Peoria Journal Star: Another Stupid Disease.
Why does this 12 day old infant boy have tetanus? Because his mother was not fully immunized against tetanus while she was pregnant with him.
Good prenatal care and immunization would not have cost much money. Five billion dollars was pledged to Haiti post earthquake. However, none of these funds helped this little dude.
Thus, this innocent baby has a very stupid disease that could and should have been prevented. His back is arched and he has seizures. He stands about a 20% chance of surviving. This boy needs a good pediatric intensive care unit. Soleil doesn't have one. Soleil doesn't have much of anything except good people and misery everywhere you look.
There are about one million cases of tetanus in the world each year. Most cases occur in the developing world. And about 40% of these people die. Neonates have the highest mortality rate.
Stupidity in systems breeds stupid diseases and catastrophes like this one.
