WHO: Cholera sickens 30,000 in Zimbabwe
The World Health Organization reports that as many as 31,656 suspected cases were diagnosed to date with one third of them in the capital of Harare; this is up from 29,131 cases reported on Monday; 1,564 have already died
Cholera is a preventable and treatable disease, but not in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, a country his corrupt and brutal rule has brought to its knees. Two weeks ago Mugabe that the cholera epidemic has been “contained,” but since then the number of infections has risen dramatically. Bloomberg reports that the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday that more than 30,000 people in Zimbabwe have been diagnosed with cholera, as the number of those contracting the deadly disease continues to mount. As many as 31,656 suspected cases were diagnosed to date with one third of them in the capital of Harare, the WHO said.
The organization last reported some 29,131 suspected cases on Monday and 1,564 deaths from the water-borne disease.
Cholera also continues to plague neighboring South Africa, where it has killed 13 people, mainly in the Limpopo border region where nine people have died from a total of 1,334 suspected cases, the WHO said citing South African sources. Cholera has been brought to South Africa by thousands of Zimbabweans, many of them already infected, who escaped Zimbabwe in order to receive medical treatment in South Africa. The Mugabe government’s policies have brought about the collapse of public services — and the collapse of the economy as a whole — and services such as health, food distribution, water purification, sewage treatment, education, transportation, power provision, and more no longer exist in any meaningful way.
UN aid agencies fear Zimbabwe may be hit with up to 60,000 cases, with the upcoming rainy season likely to spread the disease more easily. The Red Cross announced on Wednesday that it would send seven international emergency response teams to the impoverished southern African country to help fight the spread.
