'This is not a time to get sick,' says a doctor in Haiti on the health-care crisis

This hospital in Port-au-Prince was damaged during an armed attack in November. With the current unrest in Haiti, health-care facilities are at even greater risk as are staff and patients. (Richard Pierrin/AFP via Getty Images)

It isn't easy to get a blood transfusion in Haiti these days.

"I had a call from a friend seeking care for a family member," says Dr. Wesler Lambert, executive director of the nonprofit Zanmi Lasante, affiliated with Partners in Health and Haiti's largest health-care provider outside the government. "They wanted [a] blood transfusion for him." Members of his family were willing to donate blood, but it wasn't safe enough for them to travel to the hospital.