HARARE The UN says Zimbabwes measles outbreak is claiming five lives a week, four months after a nationwide immunisation campaign that targeted more than five million children.The UN said while suspected cases have declined from 248 to 85 per week, the average weekly death toll of five was a cause for concern among the humanitarian community.
Following the (immunisation) campaign in the period 5 July to 12 September, 844 suspected cases and 53 deaths were reported, the UNs Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its monthly humanitarian update on Zimbabwe.
More than 11 744 suspected cases and 570 deaths have been reported since the September 2009 when the outbreak started.
In the last 30 days three districts, namely Bikita in Masvingo province, Chipinge in Manicaland and Zvishavane in the Midlands have reported confirmed outbreaks, the UN agency said.
The Zimbabwe government embarked on a nationwide measles vaccination campaign in June to fight a rising measles outbreak and arrest plummeting immunisation coverage.
The disease that can be prevented through vaccination was initially confined to families of some religious groups whose followers refuse conventional medical treatment but later spread to more areas countrywide.
The measles outbreak came barely a year after a cholera epidemic claimed close to 5 000 lives as bankrupt local authorities failed to supply clean drinking water to residents or provide garbage collection services.
The cholera epidemic was only brought under control after international aid agencies moved in with water treatment chemicals as well as medicines and health support staff to treat the disease.
Zimbabwes health system was once one of the best in Africa but collapsed as a severe recession over the past decade meant the government was unable to build new hospitals or maintain existing ones, while poor salaries drove the best trained doctors and nurses abroad where pay and working conditions are better.
The power-sharing government between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has promised to rebuild the economy and restore basic services such as water supplies, health and education.
But the administration has found it hard to undertake any meaningful reconstruction work after failing to get financial support from rich Western nations that insist they want to see more political reforms before they can loosen the purse strings.
Post published in: Analysis