Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic has broken all African records and the World Health Organisation predicts 100,000 people may be infected before it is contained.The International Federation of the Red Cross has deployed a large
number of emergency response units in Zimbabwe.
When cholera first started spreading last year the worst-case
projections were that 60,000 people could fall ill. That total has
already been surpassed, with well over 3,000 dead.
The scale of the problem illustrates the challenges Morgan Tsvangirai,
the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, will have
to face once he is sworn in as prime minister this week.
The MDC risks being held responsible for a situation over which it has
little or no power if the Zanu-PF party of Robert Mugabe obstructs the
work of the unity government. Mr Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s longstanding
autocratic leader, remains Zimbabwe’s president and has control of
several key ministries after months of negotiations with Mr Tsvangirai.
While the cholera epidemic in Harare, the capital, has stabilised, in other more rural locations, cholera is raging.
The International Federation of the Red Cross has deployed a large
number of emergency response units in Zimbabwe, but neither it nor
other humanitarian agencies can cope with the spread of cholera.
The World Health Organisation recently found that in a two-week period
in Midlands province infections quadrupled from 1,000 to 4,000, while
deaths rose from 100 to 400.
Matthew Cochrane, the IFRC’s spokesman, travelled across Zimbabwe last
week and said that in Kwekwe, a mining town 100 miles west of Harare,
the Imbizo clinic, which had no resources, was overrun with patients
after admitting 130 in three days.
"Dozens of people were lying there, seriously infected next to those
not so ill, and there were three bodies among them on the floor," he
said.
"In a couple of days we set up a tent, supplies, some training, and the situation improved immediately."
Post published in: Analysis