Haiti Registers 1,398 Diphtheria Cases; MSF Cité Soleil Hospital Enters Day 17 of Closure

As of May 26, 2026, Haiti had recorded 1,398 confirmed diphtheria cases in an ongoing outbreak that compounds the country's already severely degraded public health infrastructure. Diphtheria — a vaccine-preventable bacterial infection causing respiratory obstruction — has reemerged in Haiti in the context of collapsed vaccination coverage, mass displacement, IDP camp overcrowding, and the closure of health facilities including MSF's hospital in Cité Soleil. MSF's hospital in Cité Soleil entered its 17th consecutive day of closure as of May 26, 2026 — the longest documented uninterrupted shutdown of the facility since the crisis began. The hospital, the only emergency health facility accessible to Cité Soleil's ~300,000 residents living under total gang control, was evacuated on May 10 during intense intra-Viv Ansanm fighting between Chen Mechan/Taliban/400 Mawozo and Duvivier/Pyè 6 factions. No reopening timeline has been announced. The HaitiLibre daily digest also confirmed that 85% of Haiti's voting-age population had been registered on electoral rolls — a procedural milestone in the electoral process that nonetheless occurs against a backdrop of 23 communes inaccessible to electoral authorities, an abandoned August 30 election date (PM Fils-Aimé declared it 'impossible' on May 12), and a situation in which gang forces launched fresh attacks on Port-au-Prince neighborhoods on this same date.