Migration within the periphery: Haitian labor in the Dominican sugar and coffee industries

"This article presents data on the employment of Haitian labor in the sugar and coffee sectors in the Dominican economy. The Haitian cyclical pattern of migration is related to the enclave pattern of development as it has occurred in the Dominican Republic. The common features of both coffee and sugarcane production which stimulate the reliance on cheap foreign labor are discussed."

Reduction of mortality in rural Haiti through a primary-health-care program

Deaths and their causes in a rural Haitian population of 8820 were studied through hospital records, death registration, a disease survey, and health surveillance. The results were used in selecting eight diseases for the delivery of health services by village-level health workers. The impact of the services was measured by monitoring annual age-specific and disease-specific mortality rates and by comparing them with officially estimated national mortality rates. Mortality rates fell progressively during five years, to levels only one fourth as high as the national estimates. The fall in mortality was associated principally with services that prevented deaths due to tetanus, malnutrition, diarrhea, and tuberculosis. The total program of hospital and village health services saved 495 years of potential life per thousand population per year. Most of the saving was attributable to preventive services. The program eventually served more than 115,000 persons, and it has been replicated by other agencies for an additional 135,000 Haitians.

Family size and malnutrition in Santo Domingo

A case-control study of 82 urban Dominican women with a malnourished child and 82 women with a well-nourished child of the same age, sex, and neighborhood of residence revealed that the women of the control group had significantly lower parity and also had fewer living children. More women in the case group had used contraception at one time. Nevertheless, the prevalence of current contraceptive use was identical in the two groups. More women in the control group had undergone one or more spontaneous or induced abortions. Although the women in both groups were selected from the same neighborhoods, there is evidence to suggest that the the women in the control group may have had higher family incomes. The higher incomes could well account, at least in part, for the difference in parity between the two groups as well as for the difference in nutritional status in the preschool children of the mothers of these groups.

Administration and evaluation of rural health services. I. A tetanus control program in Haiti

Tetanus has been a public health problem of major importance in rural Haiti. Energetic preventive measures by a rural Haitian hospital were successful in controlling the problem only after immunization services were made easily available to the entire population served by the hospital. This was accomplished by a program which carried the services to the market places and villages of the region. The program developed several new categories of auxiliary personnel who were recruited locally and trained on the job. These personnel were utilized in a program which incorporated preparatory publicity, timing, handling of large crowds in open surroundings, education, record keeping, follow-up and evulation as well as the technical matters concerning the giving of injections. The program sharply reduced the number of admissions to the hospital for the treatment of tetanus. Evaluated on the basis of hospitalizations avverted the program cost only 1/9 the value of the 50,000 hospital days of care for the tetanus cases it prevented.