Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Visits Haiti

April 30, 2012

Secretary Sebelius meeting members of a women's group against gender-based violence.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius visited Haiti April 16-17, 2012, to see U.S. efforts to help Haiti in the health sector.  Health is one of the four priority sectors of U.S. assistance, along with agriculture, governance and rule of law, and infrastructure. 

In addition to meeting with senior Haitian officials to discuss the broad bilateral partnership between the United States and Haiti, Secretary Sebelius helped launch the national Pentavalent vaccination campaign, along with Haitian Minister of Public Health and Population Dr. Florence Duperval Guillaume.  Pentavalent vaccine protects against 5 highly contagious infections:  diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, hepatitis B, and haemophilus influenzae.

Secretary Sebelius later visited the GHESKIO Center in Port-au-Prince, which is supported by the U.S. government, and met with mothers and their children at a nutrition clinic.  She also saw GHESKIO’s activities to treat water and she visited a cholera treatment center, where she prepared oral rehydration salts and offered them to a child suffering from dehydration.