Cholera Epidemic Spreads in Zimbabwe, as Health Services Collapse (video)

Crisis Policy Forum, Food Supply Security, Human Health, Water Scarcity :: Comments (0)

13 December 2008 :: by staff

With hospitals closing, funding non-existent, economy unraveling, political impasse and aid frozen, Zimbabwe is facing escalating risk of a severe cholera pandemic

Evelyn Winston Perez, CafeSentido.com :: The spread of cholera due to Zimbabwe’s foundering hygienic infrastructure is reaching crisis proportions. UNICEF is calling for an emergency fund of $17.5 million to fight the spread of cholera in Zimbabwe, calling the outbreak “a cholera crisis of unprecedented levels”. With 13,960 cases already declared and an estimated 589 dead to date, the UN warns upwards of 60,000 people could become infected if drastic and immediate action is not taken to contain the epidemic.

Aid groups are warning that many times more people may already have died from the disease, but that their infections and deaths are going unrecorded due to hospital closures and the collapse of Zimbabwe’s healthcare and communications infrastructure. According to the UK’s Guardian newspaper:

Oxfam said there were likely to be thousands of unreported deaths. “When you look at people who are already weakened by hunger, many already weakened by HIV and AIDS, and with rainy season comes malaria, and we know anthrax is spreading, it’s really just a recipe for disaster,” a spokeswoman said.

Itai Rusike, speaking for the Community Working Group, has said: “Phones are not working, nurses are not there, so their information system has collapsed. It is very difficult to tell how many people have died.” UNICEF is also warning that the severity of the humanitarian catastrophe cannot be underestimated, as 80% of the population of Zimbabwe has no access to safe drinking water.

The UK prime minister Gordon Brown told the press Mugabe leads “a bloodstained regime”, that the cholera outbreak means Zimbabwe’s crisis is “now not just a national emergency, it’s an international emergency”, which could “spill over, if nothing is done, into Mozambique, into South Africa”. Echoing the calls of other leaders, Brown quipped “enough is enough”.

In addition to Brown and other world leaders, South African archbishop Desmond Tutu has also called for Mugabe to “step down”, saying he should be offered a “soft landing” if he resigns and hands over power, but threatened with prosecution at the Hague for crimes against humanity, should he refuse to leave office. Mugabe is being blamed for an ongoing crackdown on dissent at all levels, which some say is worsening as the political stalemate drags on.

The Associated Press is reporting “Brian Raftopoulos, organizer of the Solidarity Peace Trust, said a number of activists have been abducted and protests violently quashed by riot police.” While the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by Morgan Tsvangirai —who has been abducted and beaten multiple times this year by security forces— seeks to enter into a failing power-sharing agreement with Mugabe, the regime has refused to relinquish or share control of the police, leading to accusations Mugabe will use the police to impose his will indefinitely.

Mugabe’s government claims the cholera epidemic is being used to scapegoat the perennial president and blames sanctions imposed by “western” powers. Today, Zimbabwe’s information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu complained “the cholera issue has been used to drive a wedge among us,” said the disease had been brought “under control” and blamed sanctions for the deaths experienced to date.

World Health Organization officials and regional governments suggest otherwise:

468 cholera cases had been detected in South Africa, nine of whom had died, and that Zimbabwe’s epidemic also had spread to Mozambique and Botswana. WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said the cases in South Africa were probably a mix of cholera already found in South Africa and spillover from Zimbabwe.

Experts say cholera is common in the region, as compared to other parts of the world, but that Zimbabwe had been better able to contain outbreaks before the startling collapse of its economy in recent years. Until now, the worst outbreak had seen roughly 3,000 recorded cases, according to Peter Lundberg, of the International Red Cross. By sheer number of infections, this outbreak is already 4.5 times as bad.

Joining the voices of Gordon Brown, Desmond Tutu, and Kenyan pres. Raila Odinga, US Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice has called on Mugabe to “leave”, blaming him for political violence, a “sham election”, and for sabotaging the process of forming a joint governing coalition with the opposition, who won more votes than his party in the first round of voting in this year’s election. Rice also blamed Mugabe for the socio-economic hardship and humanitarian crisis now facing the people of Zimbabwe.