ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 10, 1996 TAG: 9611120127
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
SOURCE: BRENNAN LINSLEY ASSOCIATED PRESS
'We're always hungry. Hunger is the worst sickness. It kills my kids.'
Morgan Maxi soon will be a statistic - another of the thousands of Haitian children who will die this year.
More tragically, she will be the seventh child that her mother, Francimene Bruce, has lost to sickness.
Morgan's chances in life weren't ever bright. Haiti is the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, and only four of every five Haitians survive beyond their fifth year.
Among the extreme poor, like Morgan's family and the tens of thousands of homeless youngsters who roam the streets, even more die. AIDS, tuberculosis, bacterial diseases from poor sanitation, malnutrition are widespread.
On a recent morning, Bruce was bitter as she bathed 6-month-old Morgan, kissing her daughter on a head dangerously swollen with fluid.
She didn't blame the doctors who diagnosed the spinal meningitis that is killing Morgan - and who refused to treat the infant because Bruce has no money.
She blamed a government that has been unable to generate the jobs that many Haitians need for a healthy life.
``The government is responsible because I have no job. If there was work, I would take it and would have my own money to pay for Morgan,'' Bruce said.
``When my babies are hungry, we have no food. I have no money for them when they are sick. I have no money to feed them, then they are dead. We're always hungry. Hunger is the worst sickness. It kills my kids.''
Bruce would need 60 Haitian dollars - about $20 - a day to pay for hospitalization, antibiotics, an intravenous hookup and other medical care for Morgan.
That is 20 times what the average Haitian earns for a day's work. And it's far beyond what Bruce's husband makes for hauling goods on a wooden cart he pulls like a work horse.
The fluid in Morgan's head is keeping the bones from fusing together, a vital part of early infant development. She will suffer brain damage and die, as is common with untreated meningitis.
Bruce, 36, blames disease for the deaths of six of her 11 children. She includes two miscarriages that she said occurred because she was malnourished and ill.
Malnutrition is the No. 2 killer of children in this Caribbean nation of about seven million people. It is also a contributing factor to diarrhea, the leading cause of death among Haitian children.
Acute and chronic infant malnutrition has doubled since 1990, according to a UNICEF report on Haiti that is to be published soon, said Dr. Flora Sibanda-Mulder, a UNICEF epidemiologist.
Nearly 29 percent of Haitian children suffer acute or chronic malnutrition, by far the highest in the Western Hemisphere, with Honduras following at 18 percent, Sibanda-Mulder said.
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: BRENNAN LINSLEY/AP. 1. Six-month-old Morgan Maxi, whoby CNBsuffers from untreated spinal meningitis, has been refused medical
treatment because her family cannot pay for it. 2. Haitian street
boys (far left) huddle together as they sleep on a public sidewalk
in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. 3. Francimene Bruce
(left), 35, cuddles Morgan, expected to be her seventh child lost to
illness. 4. Jonathan Gerver poses in front of the open sewer and
shacks in the Bel Ecoute slum in Port-au-Prince. color. 5. With the
Haitian National Palace in the background, 10-year-old street boy
Alain Sentile inhales glue. Alain, whose parents are dead, says he
begs and steals each day to make enough money to buy glue and a
little food.