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“We haven’t had any new scenarios (…), perhaps one or two patients with some evacuations have appeared, but they’ve been ruled out because they haven’t been repeated, and possibly some parasitism from other causes,” he said.

He stated that while the mobile hospitals had been installed in the area for 21 days, emergencies such as hypertension and headache had been attended to. He did, however, confirm that they will remain in place until the circumstances dictate otherwise.

Ever since he began volunteering two months ago for weekend shifts at a clinic in one of the largest shelters in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Dr. Brian Elmore has treated about 100 migrants for respiratory viruses and a handful of more serious emergencies, the Associated Press reported.

But what worries him most is something else.

Many migrants are traumatized after their long journeys north.

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The "worsening trauma" experienced by the migrants, the AP reported, often involves witnessing murders and suffering from kidnappings and sexual assault.

"Most of our patients have symptoms of PTSD — I want to initiate a screening for every patient," Elmore, an emergency medicine doctor at Clinica Hope, told the AP.

The Catholic nonprofit Hope Border Institute opened the clinic this past fall with the help of Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, which borders Juarez, said the AP. 

"The Hope Border Institute (HOPE) brings the perspective of Catholic social teaching to bear on the realities unique to our U.S.-Mexico border region," the group's website says. 

"Through a robust program of research and policy work, leadership development and action, we work to build justice and deepen solidarity across the borderlands."

Professionals including doctors, social workers, clergy and law enforcement say growing numbers of migrants are suffering violence that amounts to torture — and are arriving at the U.S.-Mexican border in desperate need of trauma-informed medical and mental health treatment, the AP reported.

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But resources for this specialized care are scarce.

And the network of shelters is so overwhelmed by new arrivals and migrants that only the most severe cases can be handled, according to the AP's reporting.

One specific example, as a case manager described: "A pregnant 13-year-old … fled gang rapes, and so [she] needs help with child care and middle school."

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Zury Reyes Borrero, a case manager in Arizona with the Center for Victims of Torture, visited the young girl when she gave birth — and described the circumstances.

"We get people at their most vulnerable. Some don’t even realize they’re in the U.S.," the case manager told the AP.

In the past six months, Reyes Borrero and a colleague have helped about 100 migrants at Catholic Community Services’ Casa Alitas, a shelter in Tucson, Arizona, she said.

Each visit with a migrant can take hours.

Caseworkers try to build a rapport with the individuals — and focus on empowering them, Reyes Borrero told the AP.

This group of people "might not have any memory that’s safe," said Sarah Howell, who runs a clinical practice and a nonprofit treating migrant survivors of torture in Houston, Texas.

When she visits patients in their new Texas communities, said Howell, they routinely introduce relatives or neighbors who also need help with severe trauma; yet they reportedly lack the stability and safety necessary for healing.

Most migrants need "first-aid mental health" as well as long-term care that’s even harder to arrange once they disperse from border-area shelters to communities across the country, noted another professional.

Left untreated, such trauma can escalate to where it necessitates psychiatric care instead of therapy and self-help, Dylan Corbett, Hope Border Institute’s executive director, told the AP.

Service providers and migrants alike are saying the most dangerous spot on journeys filled with peril at every step is "la selva" — the Darien Gap jungle separating Colombia from Panama, crossed by increasing numbers of Venezuelans, Cubans and Haitians who first moved to South America and are now seeking safer lives in the United States, the AP reported.

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Natural perils like deadly snakes and rivers only add to the risks of an area rife with bandits preying on migrants, the same source noted.

Meanwhile, over four million migrants have flocked to the southern border since Vice President Kamala Harris was assigned the task of addressing the "root cause" of the crisis nearly two years ago, Fox News Digital reported this weekend.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection tracked 233,000 border encounters in November.

That's a 35% increase from when Harris was assigned her role on mass migration there in March 2021. 

These encounters are expected to increase after the expiration of Title 42, a pandemic-era policy under President Donald Trump that allows border agents to turn away migrants at the border.

The White House in December could not define exactly what Harris does in her role to address the mass migration.

"I don’t have anything to lay out specifically on what that work looks like," press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing when asked about the role of the vice president.

The vice president’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The Associated Press, as well as Fox News Digital's Patrick Hauf, contributed reporting.

Public Health personnel, accompanied by Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) members, direct him to one of the tents set up by the Ministry in this sector of the Dominican capital, on the banks of the Isabela River, where the majority of the country’s ten cases of the disease have been confirmed.

Romer Castro expends his last energy to reach the provisional care center, where they begin the standard protocol for a patient with the symptoms: diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, and dehydration picture. He has taken too long to arrive for treatment, according to the health personnel of the mobile hospital, who are used to foreign patients who are afraid to go to the doctor, especially if they have irregular immigration status.

After giving him first aid, they transport him to the Moscoso Puello Hospital, accompanied by a relative and one of the doctors in charge of the case, so that the necessary tests can be performed to confirm if it is cholera, as there are other conditions, such as parasitism, that present with similar symptoms.

At a press conference, the interim representative of the international organization in the country, Bernardino Vitoy, pointed out that they still do not have the arrival date of the vaccine, but that they are in the middle of the negotiations so that in the future the serum can be placed the vulnerable population.

“World production is not very high, there are few suppliers and an estimate is currently being made of how much it will be possible to allocate to the Dominican Republic,” he said. The doctor also stated that they are working to expand the diagnostic capacity of the pathology, with the delivery of more rapid tests so that infections can be confirmed and ruled out.

According to experts, the cholera vaccine is administered orally and two doses are placed so that it can have the necessary effects.

Only the fact that they are two males was provided, but the current state of the admitted passengers, as well as their nationality, are unknown, though it is assumed that they are foreigners.

Until now, no information has been released by the corresponding authorities, about the origin of the cruise and where the boat was heading, which according to information, has already left the Dominican port.

Santo Domingo, DR
The residents of the La Zurza sector, a locality of the National District where four new cases of cholera were confirmed almost a week ago, have had to modify their habits and take extreme hygiene measures to avoid contracting the disease.

Housewives, the elderly, and young people said they only use water from the water tanks recently installed by the Santo Domingo Aqueduct and Sewerage Corporation (CAASD) for cooking and doing their chores.

“At every certain point, there are four large water tanks that are filled twice a day and with that water we do everything, because we cannot use water from the well or from the river, due to the weeds,” said Mariela Veras, referring to the degree of contamination of the La Isabela River.

Although the Dominicans said they were aware of the threat posed by cholera, the Haitians residing in the area continue to bathe and even wash their clothes in the pool, which shows how unhealthy it is.

Given this situation and the number of Haitians residing in the area, the health authorities have prepared awareness material in Creole and Spanish so that foreigners can receive in their own language the necessary preventive information to avoid the spread of the dangerous disease.

“We have been educating them house by house, we are taking them educational material in Spanish and Creole because there are some foreign citizens here, but the Dominicans have mostly heeded the call for prevention, which is what we are looking for,” said the director of Area IV of Public Health, Jesús Surdí.

On the other hand, during a tour made by journalists of this newspaper, a brigade of workers of the Mayor’s Office of the National District was observed in the area, which has been cleaning all the places that could be a focus of bacteria since yesterday morning.

Mobile hospital

By order of the Minister of Public Health, Daniel Rivera, a mobile hospital was installed last Monday in La Zurza. A team of doctors assists all citizens who present any symptomatology related to cholera.

Fewer patients

Dr. Máximo Canela, in charge of the unit, explained to journalists of Listín Diario that, although the number of patients has gradually decreased, each patient is evaluated, submitted to treatment, or referred to a hospital center, depending on the case.

He added that they are also doing “an educational work by handing out flyers containing essential information on cholera.”

A week ago, the Ministry of Public Health confirmed four new cases of cholera, for a total of six in the country. All correspond to Dominican citizens residing in the La Zurza sector of the National District.

The health authorities urged the population not to be alarmed, to remain alert to reports, and to follow prevention measures such as frequent hand washing, washing food properly, eating well-cooked food, and drinking only potable water.

They also recommend going to the nearest health center for investigation and timely treatment if you have any diarrheal events.

The Ozama cordon

On Thursday, the proposal of the Listin Diario newspaper in its Wednesday editorial to cordon off and prohibit the access of bathers to the Isabela and Ozama rivers due to their high levels of contamination and the recent incidence of cholera bacteria was positively accepted by the Ministry of Health.

According to Dr. Daniel Rivera, Minister of Health, the analyses to understand whether or not it is necessary to limit the passage to both river sources are already underway.

Rivera added that, as Public Health, they are going to wait until they see the cultural studies in the waters of the two rivers to proceed to accompany the acting institutions as much as they have done in the intervention process developed by the Ministry in the capital sector of La Zurza, where the first cases of cholera have appeared in the country.

KEYS

Cases and tests

The Ministry of Public Health reported that eight cases had been confirmed in the Dominican Republic, and six others are awaiting results. It explains that since the cholera cases appeared in Haiti, more than 3,000 tests have been carried out in the country to detect the disease.

Prevention

To combat the disease, the authorities continue to intensify preventive measures through water chlorination, monitoring in schools where toilets and pipes are being repaired, installing new water tanks, creating wells for drinking water supply, and cleaning rivers.

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The worldwide shortage of the vaccine that helps prevent the disease, as well as the low incidence of cases on the Dominican side of the island, make accessing the biological difficult for Dominican health authorities.

Eladio Pérez, Vice Minister of Collective Health, emphasizes the Dominican Republic’s interest in being able to administer the vaccines, at least in vulnerable areas. They have approached the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and manufacturers with this interest. “We asked for support and PAHO informed us that we did not qualify, because the situation in the country does not meet the emergency criteria to access the vaccine. They inform us that there is also a global vaccine shortage, which, if true, would allow them to assist us. “We also spoke with the vaccine manufacturer, and the response was the same,” the official said.

Even though only eight cholera positives have been reported in the country to date since the first case was discovered last October, the vice minister emphasizes how beneficial it would be to be able to apply it to the vulnerable population. He uses the Isabela River in the National District as an example, a tributary where the bacterium that causes cholera has already been detected and on whose margin, specifically in the La Zurza sector, six of the eight registered positives are present.