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Haiti HEALTH
Nutrition and Disease
In the mid-1980s, the Haitian government estimated that
the
average daily nutritional consumption level in the country
was
1,901 calories per person, including 41.1 grams of
protein. These
figures represented 86 percent and 69 percent,
respectively, of
the World Health Organization's recommendations for
adequate
nutrition. In rural areas, the average person consumed
about
1,300 calories, including 30 grams of protein per day. A
national
survey in 1978 showed that 77 percent of children in Haiti
were
malnourished. Anemia was also a common problem among
children and
women.
Infant and child health were poor. The infant mortality
rate
was 124 per 1,000 live births in 1983. A quarter of all
registered deaths occurred among infants who were younger
than
one year old; half of all deaths occurred among children
under
five. Most of these deaths resulted from infectious
diseases,
especially diarrheal illnesses. Malnutrition and acute
respiratory illness also presented serious problems for
infants
and children. For adults, malaria was among the more
serious
problems; some 85 percent of the population lived in
malarial
areas. Tuberculosis and parasitic infections continued to
be
serious health hazards, and typhoid fever was endemic.
Poor
sanitation contributed to poor health indicators. In 1984
less
than 20 percent of the population had toilets or latrines.
Only
one-fourth of the rural population had access to potable
water.
Life expectancy at birth was forty-eight years in 1983,
and the
general mortality rate was 17 per 1,000 population.
Data as of December 1989
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