The International Red Cross has deployed seven emergency response units to Zimbabwe in a bid to bring under control a cholera epidemic that has claimed more than 1,500 lives. Such units, which will provide medical care and increase the availability of safe drinking water, are deployed only in "critical humanitarian situations," a Red Cross statement said.
The Red Cross said it hopes to deliver services to 1.5 million Zimbabweans by July, indicating that it anticipates a long battle to stop the spread of the disease.
The World Health organization reported 30,938 cases of cholera to date in the country, with 1,551 deaths through Tuesday, when another 630 cases were documented. Abdul Abdulkadir, the Red Cross disaster management coordinator for Southern Africa, told reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the continually rising death toll indicates a critical humanitarian situation demanding an aggressive response. He said the emergency response units will be working closely with the Ministry of Health.
A spokesman for the international relief group Medicins Sans Frontières, which took an early lead treating victims, also called the situation dire. MSF Coordinator Marcus Bahamann said the group is doing all it can but has limited resources to meet "massive" needs.
Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's President, is trying to hide the real extent of the cholera epidemic sweeping across his nation by silencing health workers and restricting access to the huge number of death certificates that give the same cause of death.
A senior official in the health ministry said the health ministry, which once presided over a medical system that was the envy of Africa, had been banned from issuing accurate statistics about the deaths, and that certificates for the fraction of deaths that had been registered were being closely guarded by the home affairs ministry.
Harare's Central Hospital officially closed last week, doctors and nurses are scarce and even those clinics offering a semblance of service do not have access to safe, clean drinking water and ask patients to bring their own. The Zimbabwean Association of Doctors for Human Rights has accused the government of dramatically under- reporting the spread of the disease. Doctors and nurses – whose salaries can just buy a loaf of bread thanks to hyperinflation – tried to protest last week against the health crisis, but riot police moved in swiftly.
As the ordinary people suffer Mr Mugabe is locked in a bitter power struggle with the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai over who should control which ministries in a unity government.
CHOLERA FIGURES IN ZIMBABWE SINCE AUGUST 2008
1 December - Deaths: 484 - Cases: 11, 73
25 December - Deaths: 1,564 - Cases: 29,131
Total Cases in December 68%
Total Cases in December 68%
MY COMMENT:
What is this despot doing to his country? First, he blames the West for all of his problems, then he tries to hide this case of cholera probably because he cannot put the blame on the West, as usual. Zimbabwe's problem cannot be solved in a day, but the first step in solving it is by removing Robert Mugabe from that seat. He has now become the Black version of the Rhodesian, Ian Smith whom he was fighting.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
What do you think? Speak your mind.