窜滨惭叠础叠奥贰鈥橲 escalating cholera epidemic could be just a hint of what鈥檚 to come as the country鈥檚 healthcare infrastructure collapses.
As 快猫短视频 went to press 11,735 cases of cholera and 484 deaths from the disease had been reported, while hospital closures and shortages of health workers and medical supplies are spreading the misery beyond cholera.
Maternal health 鈥� a barometer for the state of a country鈥檚 healthcare system 鈥� is in disarray. Two maternity hospitals in the capital, Harare, have closed and women needing Caesareans are being forced to seek help in rural areas or to pay for private healthcare if they can afford it. 鈥淲omen giving birth in Zimbabwe are at serious risk, with maternity services that are either closed or not sufficiently equipped, or where there aren鈥檛 enough healthcare people working there,鈥� says Georges Tadonke, head of the Zimbabwe branch of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
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The children鈥檚 rehabilitation unit at Harare Central Hospital has seen a threefold increase in infants sustaining severe brain damage from birth complications since 2004, according to the , which also warns of a general collapse of health infrastructure in the country.
It says Zimbabwe鈥檚 main referral hospitals in Harare and Bulawayo, the country鈥檚 second-largest city, are now virtually closed. Most district hospitals and municipal clinics are closed or barely functioning. What鈥檚 more, UNICEF reports that death rates among children under five have . 鈥淶imbabwe鈥檚 public health system is in a state of collapse and in need of urgent action to rescue it,鈥� ZADHR says.
The cholera taking hold in Zimbabwe is one consequence of imploding healthcare and sanitation infrastructure, but other diseases may follow, warns of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Deteriorating sanitation in Iraq after the first Gulf war increased typhoid cases, while crumbling infrastructure in the Democratic Republic of the Congo undermined the control of sleeping sickness after the collapse of the Mobutu government in 1997.
Last week there were reports of an outbreak of anthrax among cattle in the west of Zimbabwe. Up to 32 people are thought to have been infected after eating contaminated meat, and .
Meanwhile the has sent teams to contain outbreaks of scabies, malaria and diarrhoea, as well as cholera, in more than 10 districts since February.