Cholera in Haiti highlights trouble of disease prevention and treatment in developing world

While stemming the tide of the recent cholera outbreak in earthquake-ravaged Haiti may be as simple as boiled water, good handwashing and clean sewage disposal, the focus has turned instead to vaccines, the lack of availability of supplies and other developing world problems.

CNN's Dr. Sanja Gupta reported from the WHO warehouse on the stacks of hydration supplies left sitting in case the cholera spreads to the more populated capital of Port-au-Prince. Meanwhile the count of those dead of cholera has reached 300.

NPR discovered what most aid agencies already know, that vaccines are not a realistic solution to a cholera problem in Haiti.

Meanwhile, reports that cholera outbreaks are on the increase worldwide may bring more light to a disease that is easily prevented in developed countries. According to one report on a CNN blog, "Experts also say the re-emergence of cholera is connected to the increasing numbers of populations across the globe living in unsanitary conditions."

While living poor may not always make news, the impact of poverty bringing deadly disease is unfortunately a big news maker. Sanitation is the kind of knowledge that is lost after war and disaster, whether through ignorance or lack of resources. This deficit leaves weakened communities susceptible to death by lack of clean water and adequate sewage disposal. Training and education may be slow solutions in a sudden outbreak, but they are more permanent fixes.

Check out this video of how GMHC partner MAP International responded in Haiti after the January earthquake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sowN_WDwEKI&feature=player_embedded

The marked difference in supply delivery and pickup stands in contrast to the problems CNN discovered at the WHO warehouse.

This organization's response to a larger cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe is instructive.

Medical missions work: It's not about being a superhero

Rushing in to save the day has been a sort of embarrassing theme in American Christian missions efforts over the past couple centuries. (READ:"We aimed for no more than to have dominion over every creature that moved upon the earth. And so it came to pass that we stepped down there on a place we believed unformed, where only darkness moved on the face of the waters." -- from The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver)

Its embarrassing because it positions those who go as superior in some way. While a more accurate positioning of any believer even vaguely aware of his or her own depravity and redemption is humility.

Rushing in to save the day is part of being a medical professional as well. That's why they say "stat" when they page doctors isn't it?

But instead of encouraging a sort of double rush at the Global Missions Health Conference some believers and medical personnel are being inspired by a different, and more powerful way of saving the day.

Success in the world of medical missions today looks less like a superhero comic and more like a narrative of how things change. Adam and Danielle Ready, attended the GMHC 2009 and heard about a model of ministry that empowers nationals. The Southeast Outlook reports this week about the Ready's, who ended up traveling to see this sort of work in action and signing on to partner with a ministry that strengthens local churches to meet needs in their own communities.

This idea has been around for a long time. But it seems that more and more people in global outreach are paying attention to the principles of empowerment and community development than ever before.

Talk about hand-ups rather than hand-outs, Stan Rowland of Lifewind will host a breakout at this year's conference about CHE--a model for community development that has seen so much success around the world with so little funding.

What other great models of empowerment are out there?

Global Missions Health Conference set to engage thousands in world medicine, Nov. 11-13

For the past 13 years, the Global Missions Health Conference (GMHC) has been a place for those with the skills and heart for medical missions to discover ways to be involved. This important conference has grown to be the largest of its kind in the world--a place to network, learn, be involved, and be encouraged. A conference that focuses on medical missions, presenting field experts in medical, dental, nursing and other heathcare specialties, who share information about:

• Global healthcare concepts
• Current field best practices
• Facilitating effective community change
• Key concepts of U.S. community healthcare
• Major poverty disease states and preventative healthcare solutions

So now we're blogging about it to be sure that everyone who has an interest gets the word that this gathering is where they belong Nov. 11-13.

What is your personal direction and calling in medical missions? Maybe you can find out and connect with like-minded medical professionals, missionaries, students and Christians at the GMHC. You can help shape the future course of medical missions.

Register here.