Haiti children at risk from disease, warn aid workers

Hundreds of thousands of children in Haiti are at risk of disease, hunger and abuse nearly a year after the earthquake that devastated their country, aid workers warned today.

Among the most vulnerable are an estimated 380,000 still in makeshift camps that have expanded since last January's huge tremor.
Problems include poor sanitation, cholera, violence, malnutrition, high infant mortality and child trafficking.

Another 3,600 children orphaned or separated from their families are still in temporary care while efforts to reunite them with a parent or carer continue.

The latest figures are due to be unveiled in a United Nations report this week. About 220,000 people died in the force-seven quake on January 12. British medical charity Merlin warned of the continuing dangers facing children.

Its acting director in Haiti, Paula Sansom, said that there were still many distressing cases: "Children tend to be some of the most vulnerable people in any emergency and in Haiti they are still really highly at risk. We've had the earthquake, the rainy season, the risk of a hurricane and then cholera and the ability to make a lot of progress remains difficult. It really worries me."

Even before the disaster, Unicef estimated that 1.2 million Haitian children were "extremely vulnerable" to abuse and exploitation.