Zimbabwe's health system in crisis; cholera claims 1,937 (Roundup)

Jan 13, 2009, 12:29 GMT

Harare/Johannesburg/Lusaka - An international health rights organization has called for Zimbabwe's health-care system to be placed under international receivership, reports in neighbouring South Africa said Tuesday.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said in a statement, 'We recommend the entire health system ... water, sanitation ... be handed over to world receivership,' as reported by the South African Press Association (SAPA).

The organization said the United Nations should take charge of the health system in the southern African country that is facing its worst economic and humanitarian crisis.

PHR chief executive Frank Donaghue was quoted as saying public hospitals in Zimbabwe were without water and drugs, while health-care workers were unable to get to work because they could not afford the transport

'We believe an emergency health system needs to be put in place,' Donaghue said.

'So we would hold that the United Nations now has the power to step in and set in some type of system to take over the health system of Zimbabwe,' he added.

A cholera epidemic has claimed 1,937 lives in Zimbabwe since the outbreak was reported in August, according to figures released by the World Health Organization on Monday.

The WHO said 38,334 people had contracted the water-borne disease in Zimbabwe. Cholera has since also spread to neighbouring countries, including Zambia, South Africa and Botswana.

In Zimbabwe, the epidemic was being fuelled by a lack of clean drinking water and chronic shortages of food and other essentials. Some experts have blamed the government for the cholera epidemic over its failure to import adequate water purification chemicals.

Last month, President Robert Mugabe's government declared the disease a national emergency. International governments and organizations such as the WHO, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders), USAID and Oxfam have since moved to help combat the disease.

Experts have warned that the situation could deteriorate with the advent of the rainy season and flooding that has been forecast for some parts of Zimbabwe.

Cholera deaths in Zambia have reached 28 as the southern African nation battles to contain about 2,000 reported cases of cholera, according to radio reports Tuesday.

Ministry of Health spokesman Cannisius Banda told a private radio programme that traffic from Zimbabwe and poor water and sanitation systems, mainly in Zambia's peripheral urban areas have contributed to the spread of the water-borne disease.

Banda said Zambia had assessed the cholera situation in Zimbabwe and, rather than close its border, would assist patients from Zimbabwe in border areas with drugs and foods.

The government also planned to provide 2 billion kwacha (400,000 dollars) in aid, he said.

Another of Zimbabwe's neighbours, South Africa, continues to detect new cases. By Monday, 2,000 people infected throughout the country where 13 people have from the treatable since late last year.