Fear, Distrust and Uncertainty. The perceived susceptibility to cholera was also very similar across regions and did not seem to be greatly affected by where a person lived. All communities expressed fear of cholera and worried about it affecting themselves, their families or communities. This was perhaps most interesting in regards to the issues surrounding the causes or origins of cholera in Haiti. Regardless of location, communities all described receiving cholera prevention messages explaining that it was a “mikwob” or “microbe” that could enter the body through unclean water or contaminated food. Each group described the same basic list of prevention strategies. But also, regardless of their location each community expressed doubt about the reliability or truth of these messages. Although the ways that they described these doubts and confusion varied by community, all reported a large uncertainty about cholera that led some in the community to question whether it could actually be prevented. There were several similarities between themes that arose in our data and those reported by (Grimaud & Xxxxxxxxx, 2011) about perceptions of cholera in Haiti. Like us, they found that people were doubtful of the causes of cholera. Interestingly, the communities the Haitian Red Cross spoke with expressed their doubts in much of the same way as the people who participated in our FGDs. We both found that communities talked about beliefs that “Mikwob pa touye Ayisyen” or “Microbes don’t kill Haitians”, cholera did not come from a natural source, and that behaviors people had been doing their whole lives could not just suddenly cause them to get cholera(Grimaud & Xxxxxxxxx, 2011). (Grimaud & Xxxxxxxxx, 2011) also reported the community’s suspicions that cholera was political or may have been purposefully brought by foreigners. Interestingly, while Grimaud and Leganeur do not report any story of “cholera helicopters”, they do talk about “cholera powder” that many community members believed had been dumped into community water sources by vodou practitioners. The Red Cross findings overlap with our Labutik focus group’s story about the “cholera powder” sprinkled out of helicopters by “white people” (foreigners) and Boden’s discussion of “makanda” or “witchcraft” being the reason for cholera. These findings have important implications for the public health response to cholera. While messages are reaching many regions of Haiti, they are equally distrusted. The ability to send information to even the most ...
