The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

NOTED physician Harold Munnings said the country’s shanty towns present “a danger to everyone” as the conditions as outlined in the government’s recent report are ripe for the spread of disease.

Should a communicable disease – such as typhoid fever or cholera – be introduced into one of the shanty towns, Dr Munnings explained, the poor conditions there will allow for it to easily spread to the wider community and possibly even the country’s tourism industry.

He recalled such an instance in the past and explained that his “apprehension,” is that it could happen again.

“I didn’t find it shocking,” Dr Munnings said of the report. “I said this is us, 80 years ago. This reads like the Beveridge Report... Only now because we don’t live like that, it seems shocking. But it’s a danger. It isn’t just them living there in the bush, they are a danger to the community.”

The Beveridge Report, he explained, was a report on the country’s healthcare, done by Wilfred Beveridge, at the request of the Bahamas government in the late 1920s.

The report pointed to the poor health prevalent among the country – including the lack of potable water and insufficient sewage systems in the Bain and Grants Town area. Similar to the lack present in the shanty towns, said Dr Munnings.

“Outside toilets were the norm,” he said. “The government has been over the period of years, phasing out outside toilets. You can repair it, but you can’t build a new one.

“Then what happened to cause the government to really push – it was an endemic. People got typhoid all the time. People in the hospital, it was a common thing. You tried not to get typhoid, but every week, someone had it; hundreds of cases. Typhoid was common and sanitation was on everyone’s lips.

“But in 1925, just when the government was promoting the country as a place to come to recover your health, tourism was getting going... ten tourists came down with typhoid fever. Ten of them at once; one of them died and the government said we need to do something about this sanitation in the country.”

That’s when the government realised, Dr Munnings said, that it wasn’t just “poor people living over-the-hill with wells” who were affected.

“All the servers in the restaurants are coming from homes that have no toilets, no water, and it’s really frightening to not know when you are in danger,” he said.

“It’s one thing to say, this is a dangerous city so don’t go there, don’t go there, as long as you stay in this area, you’re safe. And 99.9 per cent of people who visit here, that’s their experience, I would like to think... They’re at Atlantis, they’re downtown, and they’re safe.

“But all of those people need care. What if the person serving you your drink could be giving you something. The government realized we can’t have this. And my apprehension is that we’ve got now such a large population of people who are like what we were 80 years ago – without sanitation, without fresh running water – that that could happen again.”

Cholera was not endemic in Haiti, said Dr Munnings, until it was introduced by a foreign worker and spread rapidly as a result of poor conditions.

“They just had poor sanitation and what did it take? And now they can’t get rid of it. The conditions were ripe. That’s the danger,” he said.

And it’s because of the potential health danger from the existing unsanitary conditions that steps currently exist to combat it, he explained.

“That’s why the government gives free health care,” Dr Munnings said. “People say, ‘Oh, well they come here and they get free health care’ – well they better because if the maid has TB and she’s working in your house – legally or illegally – you’re at risk.

“We’re paying to spray all these areas, but you better spray all these areas. It makes sense for us to do something about it. Forget humanitarian, for our own self interests. They get free education, thank goodness. What’s the alternative? To be poor, illiterate and uneducated.”

“It’s a danger to everyone,” Dr Munnings explained. “It’s not just unsanitary, it’s unhealthy – and my fear is it won’t be until a tourist gets struck down with typhoid fever and they haven’t been lurking in places – they’ve been at Atlantis, they’ve been at Baha Mar, they’ve been at the Sheraton – how did they get typhoid fever? Because it’s in the community. That’s the danger.”