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By CELEAN JACOBSON, Associated Press Writer Celean Jacobson, Associated
Press Writer - 2 hrs 3 mins ago
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - A group of doctors said Wednesday that
President Robert Mugabe's government is to blame for a cholera epidemic
sweeping Zimbabwe and that the disease's spread there is being dramatically
underreported.
About 160 people have died of cholera in Zimbabwe in recent weeks,
independent aid organizations say. The lack of clean water and poorly
maintained sewage systems have allowed the waterborne intestinal disease to
thrive.
And as the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe deepens, most hospitals
have been forced to close their doors as they can no longer afford drugs,
equipment or to pay their staff.
"This cholera epidemic is manmade," Dr. Douglas Gwatidza, head of the
Zimbabwean Association of Doctors for Human Rights, said in a telephone call
with reporters.
He said government programs to monitor disease outbreaks were in "disarray."
Those few health facilities still open were trying to stop the spread of
cholera but often at the expense of patients with other diseases.
Gwatidza also said dysentery was becoming increasingly prevalent in a
country already suffering from one of the world's worst AIDS epidemics.
Comment from Zimbabwean authorities was not immediately available Wednesday.
On Tuesday, riot police prevented health workers in the capital, Harare,
from protesting against Zimbabwe's collapsing health care system.
Dr. Primrose Matambanadzo said the government needed to issue an urgent
appeal for assistance.
"There is a state of crisis," she said. "We need things functioning at
hospitals now."
Aid groups fear the outbreaks will worsen as the rainy season progresses and
Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, has warned that 1.4
million people are at risk.
The international aid group World Vision said Wednesday that 44 people had
died in the Zimbabwean border town of Beitbridge, including one of their
staff members.
Beitbridge is one of the regions busiest border crossings and there are
concerns that it is already spreading to other countries. South African
authorities have responded to the crisis with extra medical personnel and
facilities being set up along the border.
Local health officials in Musina on the South African side of the border
said two Zimbabweans died of cholera after crossing into the country while
64 patients were treated last weekend, the Star newspaper reported
Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the South African Press Association reported that a South African
truck driver who traveled from Zimbabwe has been admitted to a Durban
hospital, showing symptoms of cholera.
Zimbabwe once had among the best health care systems in sub-Saharan Africa.
But the country's economic meltdown has led to chronic shortages of food and
gasoline, and daily outages of power and water.
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, blames Western
sanctions for his country's extreme financial woes. But critics point to
corruption and mismanagement under his increasingly autocratic leadership.
Hopes were raised when Mugabe signed a power-sharing arrangement with the
opposition in September, but little progress has been made toward setting up
a unity government.
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