Three articles^5–7 describe experiences with delivering medical care. The first article⁵ reviews the diseases diagnosed during a 7-month period by the Israeli-based primary healthcare clinic situated in Léogâne, Haiti. They found that 43% of persons presented with an infectious disease, most commonly respiratory tract infections, sexually transmitted diseases, and soft tissue infections. In addition, the article found that 30% of undifferentiated fevers were caused by falciparum malaria. Other vector-borne diseases including dengue fever were identified, consistent with the reports in this issue of malaria⁸ and dengue⁹ in travelers to Haiti. The authors note the need for large-scale preventive programs for infectious diseases to control disease in the Haitian population. Another report⁶ discusses potentially the first case of post-earthquake cholera in Haiti; the patient also had a severe untreated mental health disorder and developed acute fatal watery diarrhea after drinking from the local river. The authors use this case study as a basis to identify global health lessons relating the importance of mental health for overall health, the globalization of disease in small communities, and the importance of a comprehensive approach to the health of communities when planning services in resource-poor settings. The article by Ripp⁷ discusses the lessons learned by academic medical centers based on the Mount Sinai School of Medicine experience including preparation for response and deployment, the challenges faced, and efforts for sustainability. The authors make recommendations for future responses to natural disasters.

Three articles^10–12 are based on surveillance activities in or related to Haiti. Using data from the GeoSentinel Global Surveillance Network, one article¹⁰ describes patient characteristics and disease spectrum among foreign visitors to Haiti before and after the 2010 earthquake. Based on comparing 1 year post-earthquake to 3 years pre-earthquake, the work found that post-earthquake travelers were younger, predominantly from the United States, and were more frequently international assistance workers. Post-earthquake travelers were more likely to have received pre-departure medical counseling. The common infectious diseases post-disaster were similar to those present pre-disaster including acute diarrhea, dengue, and Plasmodium falciparum malaria. A major public health effort in Haiti was to establish disease surveillance. The report on malaria¹¹ documents the collaborative efforts between global partners working with Haiti's Ministry of Public Health and Population to enhance malaria surveillance in two disaster-affected areas. Between March 4 and April 9, 2011, of 1,629 suspected malaria patients 1,564 (96%) had malaria rapid diagnostic tests performed and 317 (20.3%) were positive, of which 90% got anti-malarial treatment. Post-disaster official reporting mechanisms could have been disrupted, which would have made it difficult to detect infectious disease outbreaks. Brownstein and others¹² report the use of informal media in near real time to provide earlier estimates of epidemic dynamics. They assessed the correlation of the volume of cholera-related HealthMap news media and other reports in the first 100 days of the cholera outbreak and found that the volume of informal sources significantly correlated in time with official case data and was available up to 2 weeks earlier.