On our cover this month, NP Mary Lou Schulz Fisher documents patients' fluid intake as she sits with a young patient at the cholera treatment center in Bercy, Haiti. Less than a year after the January 2010 magnitude-7 earthquake damaged much of the nation's infrastructure and caused massive injury and loss of life, Haiti faced a second major disaster: a rapidly growing cholera epidemic. Fisher was part of the team sent to Haiti by Samaritan's Purse, a faith-based nongovernmental organization, to help contain the epidemic and treat those affected. While there, the organization managed more than 23,000 cases of cholera and prevented many more.

Figure. On our cover this month, NP Mary Lou Schulz Fisher documents patients' fluid intake as she sits with a young patient at the cholera treatment center in Bercy, Haiti. Photo courtesy of Samaritan's Purse, Communications.

Samaritan's Purse is one of the many relief agencies that regularly respond to global crises, such as Haiti's cholera epidemic. Among the most active are the Red Cross, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the International Rescue Committee. These agencies are essential to disaster relief efforts, delivering basic supplies such as food, clean water, and toiletries; rebuilding infrastructure; and offering medical care and education on prevention and hygiene awareness. For more on the care provided by nurses and NPs during the 2010 cholera epidemic, see this month's CE feature, "Responding to the Cholera Epidemic in Haiti."-Michael Fergenson, senior editorial coordinator