Twelve people have so far died due to a cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe as hundres are hospitalized. Serious water borne diseases are spreading across Zimbabwe’s urban areas due to severe crises within the country’s water and sanitation services.
Twelve people have so far died due to a cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe as hundres are hospitalized. Serious water borne diseases are spreading across Zimbabwe’s urban areas due to severe crises within the country’s water and sanitation services.
The 12 were from Chitungwiza township but medical officials say this number is likely much higher and merely ‘the tip of the iceberg’.
Health centres in Harare as well as in Bulawayo are reportedly burdened by numerous cases of diarrhea on a daily basis and more deaths as a result are expected.
The water and sanitation situation across the country has been rapidly
deteriorating as the ongoing political crisis has seen the destruction of
the economy and the equal destruction of the country’s infrastructure.
The Zimbabwe National Water Authority has come under heavy criticism for failing to provide a proper service – a failure that has left most homes dry and
dependent on unsafe, unhealthy water supplies.
Raw sewerage openly flowing from burst pipes in many residential areas and rubbish not being disposed of or collected.
The collapse of such basic services means the health of millions of Zimbabweans, already suffering because of the humanitarian crisis in the country, is being threatened with serious diseases.
The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights said in a statement that the new government ‘must address this crisis as a matter of
urgency’ saying that cholera outbreaks are ‘symptomatic of serious
structural problems within the system of public works’.
The Association added that it was not enough for the Ministry of Health to respond to any disease outbreak ‘only after it has occurred’ saying the Ministry needs to work to ensure further diseases are prevented and the ‘right to the highest attainable state of physical and mental wellbeing is respected’.
The government has responded by merely advising citizens to avoid ” shaking hands during funerals”
This would only be met by resistance as it is an Africa tradition to do so as a sign of showing remorse to the bereaved.
