[The essential drugs program in Haiti].

A survey was carried out by random sample among institutions that had benefited from the programme of humanitarian assistance during the period of economic embargo imposed in Haiti. The objective of this survey was to determine the effect that the distribution of medicines during this period had on the reactivation of the programme for essential drugs. Of the 51 health institutions selected, 45 provided satisfactory information. The results show that 42 institutions received medicines from the humanitarian aid programme. Six months after the end of the programme for humanitarian assistance, 39 of these institutions were using essential drugs in dispensaries and in health centres without beds. Essential drugs predominated over special medicines. These institutions continued to stock up at the PROMESS centre for essential drugs. This institution, initially created for the programme for humanitarian assistance, continued to function in October, 1994, a year after the end of the programme, and became the object of the adaptation of long-term support for programmes of the national health plan. The study also showed that the recovery of costs of medicines is a current practice within 44 of the 45 institutions surveyed, no matter whether their status is public, private, or mixed, thus emphasising the availability of the community for participating in financing health services. These results show that the humanitarian assistance programme, through the distribution of medicines and independently of its specific objectives, reinforced the programme for essential drugs. This is an indication that humanitarian assistance programmes may not only carry out their objectives, which are often limited and short-term, but may also produce lasting results that favour the reinforcement of development structures.