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Cholera deaths: "criminal negligence"- lawyers
Caiphas Chimhete, The Standard (Zimbabwe)
September 27, 2008

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/local/19003-cholera-deathscriminalnegligence-lawyers.html

The frail-looking woman with wrinkles of grief etched all over her face like permanent scars is devastated.

At the mention of her only son, Joy Kabande (29), tears well up in her sunken eyes and rain down the creased cheeks. Joy succumbed to cholera early this month.

Evidently, the wrinkles are not from age, but a month of pain and grief.

Joy's mother, Mai Kabande, is just 54 years.

"He was the only boy I had and was completing the construction of this house," she says amid the torrent of tears. "I was robbed. Who will take care of me now?"

Her daughter, who only identified herself as Mrs Musokeri, joined in and had no kind words for medical staff at South Medical Clinic in Chitungwiza, whom she accuses of gross negligence.

"I blame the doctors and the staff at the hospital," Musokeri said. "He could have survived, if they had given him care. They neglected him but now they are demanding lots of money for doing nothing."

Joy, who was a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe and had planned his wedding on October 5, was the sole breadwinner of the whole family.

He is one of the 16 people who have succumbed to cholera, a preventable disease, during the past month.

Sources in the health sector told The Standard that more than 16 people had died countrywide but most of the cases go unreported because they die at home due to the current high cost of health care.

Cases of cholera have been reported in Harare and Chitungwiza.

The Ministry of Health and Child Welfare has set aside Seke North clinic in Chitungwiza to deal with cholera cases only. When The Standard visited the clinic last week there was a long queue of people, who said they were suffering from diarrhoea, waiting for treatment.

The patients, mostly children, were writhing in agony on the floors as the few nurses battled to attend to them.

Some of the nurses were distributing dehydration salts and aqua tablets, for use in drinking water.

Human rights activists and medical doctors have described the deaths from cholera as "criminal negligence" by health officials and government.

They lambasted, Dr David Parirenyatwa, the Minister of Health and the Minister of Water Resources and Infrastructural Development, Engineer Munacho Mutezo for a "lackadaisical" approach to the outbreak.

The Zimbabwe National Water Authority's (Zinwa) - which falls under Mutezo's ministry - has failed to treat and pump adequate supplies of water - has left most urban homes dry and forced residents to rely on unsafe supplies of water.

Burst sewage pipes have become common while refuse goes uncollected for several months, threatening the health of millions on Zimbabweans.

Itai Rusike, the director of the Community Working Group on Health (CWGH), blames the government for the deaths insisting that it has failed to prioritise the health sector.

"Our plea to the government is that they should treat the health sector like they are doing agriculture," Rusike said. "We also need a sustained 'Baccosi' programme and a heavy injection of foreign currency."

Presently, the drug situation is pathetic; morale among the few remaining workers is at its lowest while most of the equipment is obsolete.

The CWGH director believes the official cholera death figure of 16 is an under-representation of facts as some people were dying at home.

Other cholera cases, said Rusike, had also been recorded at Juru Growth Point in Mashonaland East and in Kariba, Mashonaland West Province.

"Some two weeks ago, I was in Juru and I witnessed a cholera death. One of our colleagues had to leave the workshop we were holding to supervise the burial. So, I believe the figure 16 is very under-represented," Rusike said.

The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) also believes more people have succumbed to cholera than are officially reported.

ZADHR said: ". and that this is but the tip of an iceberg of much more morbidity. This has not been communicated to the public."

The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) has accused government of "criminal negligence" over the continued deaths of people due to cholera.

It said it was alarming and quite unusual that a preventable disease continued to kill people in "this day and age".

"The failure by the government to swiftly respond to the cholera epidemic is an unacceptable failure of leadership," ZLHR said.

"These wanton deaths are intolerable and shameful, and the state's failure is merely a replication of other high level failures, where the citizenry has now been disenfranchised of almost all their basic human rights."

The organization also believes that more people are at risk of contracting the disease while the government was doing nothing.

"If more than a dozen people have died from cholera in just less than a month, we can only imagine how many more are currently affected by, or at risk of contracting, this avoidable disease," ZLHR said.

Rusike called for the return of water management to local authorities because Zinwa had no capacity to provide clean water to urban centres.

Zinwa took over water management in the urban centres from most local authorities last year.

Parliament had recommended that government re-considers its ill-advised decision to allow Zinwa to take over water supply, administration, and billing and sewer reticulation from local authorities.

Parirenyatwa attributed the outbreak to the erratic supply of water and the sewer problem, which he said should be rectified before the onset of the rainy season to prevent further deaths. Mutezo could not be reached for comment.

But Zinwa acting manager for Harare Water Catchment engineer Bernard Poko was recently quoted as saying the authority had reduced the quantity of treated water significantly.

"We are battling to transport the whole chemical tonnage we need to produce a substantial amount of water, but there has been a slight improvement,' he said.

Last year, at least 15 people died of the disease countrywide and Parirenyatwa promised to address the water problem.

A year later, he is still giving the same promises.

Had he acted, Joy might have been alive to complete his mother's house and to wed the love of his wife next month.

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