Texts in the Time of Cholera

In 4th grade, we got to play Oregon Trail if we finished our keyboarding lesson early. I always finished early. My mother was the Louisiana State Typing Champion in 1973. Needless to say, she thought knowing how to type quickly and accurately is something her 9 year old should know. So, I crushed all the keyboarding lessons in about 5 minutes so I could play Oregon Trail. I was not as talented at Oregon Trail as typing. I always got the error message "You have died of cholera." Ugh.

This is about as close to cholera as any kid in the United States has gotten. Unfortunately, children and adults in Haiti are facing the real cholera head on. Last week, a few cases of cholera were reported in a camp just north of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Cholera spreads quickly and viciously through contaminated water and food. It causes severe dehydration and death if left untreated. Within the week 300 Haitians had died of cholera and 4,000 had been sickened.

Public health officials scrambled to slow the spread of cholera. The spread of cholera to a densely populated city, like Port-au-Prince or the camps around them could lead to an epidemic of disastrous proportions.

Public health officials quickly began an education and awareness campaign about cholera through radio, text, and 1:1 communication.

The International Organization for Migration broadcasted a live cholera education seminar to 40 radio stations, "Since people in Haiti get most of their news from radio, it's one arm of the frantic campaign to keep the cholera epidemic that started to the north from coming here to these overcrowded camps" according to Christopher Joyce's article on NPR.

Texts are used to directly reach Haitians. The texts provide a phone number for Haitians to call to learn how to prevent cholera. IMO officials say "Cholera doesn't need to be a killer, they say, if people just know more about it", also from Joyce's recent article.

Thanks to the timely, relevant, and simple health messaging the cholera epidemic seems to be losing steam. Click here to hear a short summary by Christopher Joyce in Haiti.

This cholera education campaign is a shining example of how effective messaging and a careful understanding of how audiences use media can prevent, or at least allay, an epidemic.