'Declare Zim health emergency'
2008-11-25 22:11
Special Report
A classical music presenter for the BBC has been arrested and is in custody in Zimbabwe.
Johannesburg - Oxfam called on the Zimbabwe government on Tuesday to declare a national health emergency as the cholera death toll in the country rose to 300.
In addition 187 people had been treated at border health facilities in South Africa since mid-November.
"Delay is not an option as this crisis could rapidly spread with the rainy season looming," said Oxfam, one of the non-governmental organisations working to curb the spread of the disease.
The warning comes as NGOs working on the South African side of the Beit Bridge border expressed hope earlier on Tuesday that the outbreak might be brought under control after treating 169 people since November 15.
However, by Tuesday afternoon Limpopo health department spokesperson Phuti Seloba reported that another 18 more people had sought medical care for the disease.
Last week the Cabinet blamed political leaders in Zimbabwe for the cholera outbreak and for that country's humanitarian crisis, saying "political interests have taken priority at the expense of the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans".
Dangers of untreated water
Three people are known to have died in Limpopo and one in Durban since the outbreak in Zimbabwean which has infected at least 6 000 people there.
Cholera is an intestinal infection contracted generally by drinking water or ingesting food contaminated with the cholera bacteria.
This is as a result of an infected person defecating into a water source or handling food.
Communities using untreated water for drinking or washing of eating utensils were particularly at risk, an NICD fact sheet read.
"No amount of political disagreement can ever justify the suffering that ordinary Zimbabweans are being subjected to at the moment," read a Cabinet statement urging political parties Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change to finalise the allocation of cabinet posts and to form a representative government.
The people being treated in South Africa were mainly from Zimbabwe, said the NICD, although authorities from both countries met over the weekend in line with a Cabinet decision to help, and agreed that no one country was to blame.
Red Cross Society Limpopo manager John Shiburi said that while interventions on the South African side of the border were adequate, they were worried about health care in Zimbabwe, as well as the health of about 3 000 migrants bedding down in the bush on the South African side of the border with no clean water or toilets.
Tons of soap for Zim
Many of the people being admitted for treatment in South Africa were from the deep rural areas of Zimbabwe, he explained, saying he was worried that these people and migrants living in the bush could become reinfected when discharged.
A team of volunteers was working with the society to spread hygiene messages to prevent further infections and with the health department were distributing leaflets, also available in Shona, a language spoken in Zimbabwe.
Besides health department interventions, help provided by Oxfam and the Red Cross Society include the distribution of soap, buckets and thousands of water purification tablets, hygiene kits and water sachets.
Oxfam said it was trucking 213 tons of soap into Zimbabwe along with disinfection chemicals and the International Federation of the Red Cross said it would bring water treatment units to affected areas from its warehouse in Harare.
The Democratic Nurses Association of SA complained about the extra workload for its members and that they were being cut out of the compensation received by nurses brought in from other areas to help. But Seloba said the department did not have time for that complaint as it was focusing on fighting the disease first.
Meanwhile, according to the United Nations news service Irin, in addition to reports of cholera in all the country's provinces, Zimbabwe is also dealing with an outbreak of Anthrax in the south of the country.
Helping animals
There are reports of six deaths of people who had eaten infected livestock instead of disposing of the cattle when they died.
Veterinary officials from the country's disaster management unit were injecting animals in the affected areas.
The UN has estimated that almost five million people in Zimbabwe will need food aid soon.
- SAPA