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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Health Crisis - Focus on Cholera and Anthrax - Index of articles
Statement
on continued cholera outbreaks
Zimbabwe
Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR)
October 24, 2008
ZADHR remains deeply
concerned with the continued outbreak of cholera in Zimbabwe. Areas
affected between September and October this year include Chinhoyi,
Kariba and Makonde in Mashonaland West and Chitungwiza, Chikurubi,
Dzivarasekwa, Kuwadzana Extension, Mabvuku, Highfield, Zengeza in
Harare. 120 cholera-related deaths have been cumulatively recorded
this year including cases from earlier outbreaks between February
and August in Manicaland, Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East
and Masvingo. A case fatality rate of 11.5% was recorded in Chitungwiza
with 16 deaths from a total of 149 reported cases and of 12.7% in
Chinhoyi from a total of 47 cases as at 14 October 2008.
The Government of Zimbabwe
has grossly underestimated the impact that infrastructure breakdown
is having on public health in Zimbabwe. Water supply is irregular
or completely absent in most urban areas, burst sewage pipes continue
to be left unattended and there is a lack of refuse collection.
These factors create ideal conditions for the outbreak and spread
of diseases such as diarrhoea, including its deadly forms of cholera
and dysentery. ZADHR reiterates that access to proper sanitation,
the supply of clean running water and preventing the outbreak of
epidemic diseases must be treated as urgent priorities by the Government.
Cholera is a disease
that can be easily prevented and cured. When cholera does occur
it has a short incubation period which means that it does not take
a long time for an infected individual to show symptoms and signs
of the disease once exposed. The symptoms are so aggressive that
a patient is likely to present to a health facility for attention
within a short period of time. Prevention of an outbreak of the
disease is then dependent on the response by health authorities
to isolate initial cases and trace their source.
Continued outbreak of
a disease of this nature in an urban setting is failure at the prevention
stage, the intervention stage and the curative stage. It is also
a manifestation of the absence of environmental health officers
and of the absence of effective governance at the local authority
level. Interventions to manage cases and control the spread of the
disease have mostly been undertaken by WHO, UN agencies and non-governmental
organisations such as Medecins Sans Frontieres and Save the Children
UK.
The failure
by the government throughout this year to effectively manage outbreaks
of cholera, which has lead to a minimum of 120 preventable deaths
so far this year, indicates the absence of capacity and ability
within government to manage public health.
ZADHR calls for an urgent, coordinated and comprehensive response
from the Government to this crisis in water and sanitation. Failure
to do so, and with the onset of the rainy season, could result in
cholera becoming endemic. It is paramount that the Ministry of Health
and Child Welfare works in conjunction with other ministries concerned,
such as that responsible for water resources, and ZINWA, to ensure
that disease is prevented and that Zimbabwean's right to the
highest attainable state of physical and mental wellbeing is respected.
Visit the ZADHR
fact
sheet
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