Several personalities from the Ministry of Health, the deanship of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy (FMP), the State University of Haiti (UEH) and American government agencies attended the graduation ceremony of the 1st Promotion of 17 nurse clinicians specializing in infectious diseases, marking the success of the collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Haiti) supported by the fund of the President's Emergency Plan for the Fight against AIDS.

The theoretical courses of this training were given in the premises of the Haitian Center for the Strengthening of the Health System (CHARESS) and at the Campus of Health Sciences, rebuilt by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The practical internships were held in various university hospitals and other health institutions in Haiti.

The 17 newly graduated clinicians are deployed in different health establishments across the country, already using their skills to fight against infectious diseases, which are, as Dr. Lauré Adrien, Director General of the Ministry of Health, pointed out, the third leading cause of death in Haiti.

Dr. Adrien was delighted that the Haitian health system could count on new skills and urged CHARESS and the FMP to continue with these trainings and to increase the number of providers trained by promotion.

Jacques Mathieu, Acting Director of the CDC, expressed the satisfaction of the CDC to have been able to support for 20 years, the FMP and the MSPP in various initiatives to strengthen the capacity of human resources for health.

Dr. Jean Guy Honoré, Executive Director of CHARESS, spoke about the brain drain and hoped that all the actors concerned would come together, under the leadership of the Ministry "for better use and distribution of the human resources still present in the country". He announced that two other promotions had already started this specialized training.

The Dean of PMF, Dr. Bernard Pierre, expressed his gratitude to the American people for their investment in training young health professionals, first through USAID, through the reconstruction of the new Science Campus of Health, and then, through the CDC and its partner CHARESS, through this specialized program aimed at licensed nurses.

Sobreca Calixte, laureate of the "Yves Lambert" Promotion in tribute to the eminent infectious disease doctor who died prematurely in 2020, undertook on behalf of the entire promotion to put the knowledge acquired at the service of the country "in order to reduce morbidity and mortality due to infectious pathologies."

HL/ HaitiLibre