SW Radio Africa (London)
Violet Gonda
2 December 2008
Cholera can be a rapidly fatal illness if not treated, and infected patients can die within three hours. In Zimbabwe this easily treatable diease is now getting completely out of control.
An already starving population is being hit by a cholera scourge that has killed hundreds and is threatening the lives of tens of thousands. Aid agencies predict the cholera epidemic will have infected at least 300,000 people by year end.
Harare's residents were already at risk from contamination, but now the city has run completely dry of water, increasing the risk. The extremely incompetent water authority ZINWA, said it had stopped pumping water at the weekend after running out of essential chemicals. They could not say when pumping would resume. This means that up to two million people will be looking for water from boreholes and newly dug wells that could already be contaminated.
Hotels and businesses all over the city are being forced to close down. A worker at Jameson Hotel confirmed that new bookings were not being taken, because there was no water and the cholera outbreak. In-house guests were being moved to the sister companies, the Oasis Hotel and Cresta Lodge, because they have boreholes.
Harare is one of the hardest hit areas and over 4 000 cases of cholera have been reported. Beitbridge is the next most affected area with more than 2 000 cholera cases. Official figures put the death rate at just under 500 but health workers predict the figure is much higher as most people are simply dying at home. The official figures reflect the deaths in the few hospitals and clinics that are still functioning. At Budiriro clinic in Harare the number of cases has accelerated dramatically, from 150 a day to 500 a day by the weekend.
A frustrated Deputy Mayor of Harare, Emmanuel Chiroto, said desperate residents are queuing up at Town House in the city centre to collect water. He said there is nothing much that can be done by the council since the management of water was taken away from the local authorities by the Mugabe regime, without consulting the residents. The Mayor said the Council is taking out huge sums of unbudgeted money to buy protective clothing for health workers and drugs to fight the disease, but still it's far from the amounts actually needed. He said council nurses are threatening to down their tools demanding a 'risk allowance' to be paid in foreign currency.
The Deputy Mayor said: "We are doing all this dirty work, we are dealing with all these problems now, but it is actually as a result of the failure by ZINWA."
The situation is the same across much of the country and even though the regime is downplaying the extent of the crisis the state controlled newspapers have been left with no choice but to report on the man-made human catastrophe.
Even the state controlled Chronicle newspaper reported on Tuesday that in Kwekwe 61 bodies were buried at Mbizo and Amaveni cemeteries over just two days last week. The paper said the Kwekwe Hospital mortuary refrigeration system had broken down, resulting in bodies decomposing. A health officer told the Chronicle that the mortuary had a carrying capacity of 60 bodies but had more than 120. The officer said: "We had reduced congestion at the mortuary but sadly more keep coming from Silobela and other surrounding areas. The single operational unit which is supposed to have 10 bodies now has more than 70 bodies already. The situation is being worsened by Gweru Provincial Hospital which is now refusing to accept bodies from Kwekwe."
It is reported that Gweru Hospital Mortuary stopped functioning more than two months ago, after its cooling system broke down and 88 bodies were given a pauper's burial at Mkoba Cemetery last Tuesday.
If nothing is done to stop the spread of this disease the ripple effect is not only going to have a negative impact on Zimbabwe, but also on neighbouring countries. Already in South Africa's Musina area 438 cholera cases have been reported, and six confirmed deaths. Musina is near the border with Zimbabwe. A Limpopo health official told SW Radio Africa that the deaths were four Zimbabweans and two South African.
And while politicians continue to play games, another deadly disease, anthrax is posing a new threat, killing three people so far and 60 000 of Zimbabwe's dwindling cattle herd is threatened.
With at least half the country facing starvation, people are eating the diseased cattle, and falling ill themselves.
Starvation, anthrax, cholera, 90% percent unemployment, a political crisis that seems to have no end and an inflation level that is so high no one knows what it really is.
How long can the country continue like this?
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