WUNRN
FULL ARTICLE follows Gender Photo of
Zimbabwe Humanitarian Crisis
JOHANNESBURG
(AP) — Zimbabwe's entire health system has collapsed and the southern
African nation now overwhelmed by cholera will soon see other epidemics, a
worsening AIDS crisis and the effects of widespread malnutrition, an
international doctors group said Tuesday.
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Themba Hadebe/Associated
Press
JOHANNESBURG
(AP) — Zimbabwe's entire health system has collapsed and the southern African
nation now overwhelmed by cholera will soon see other epidemics, a worsening
AIDS crisis and the effects of widespread malnutrition, an international
doctors group said Tuesday.
The
Nobel Prize-winning Medecins Sans Frontieres urged both foreign donors and
Zimbabwe's government to do more in light of the crisis, saying that
"nonsense" like high government fees had made it difficult for
international aid agencies to help.
"You've
all heard about the disastrous cholera epidemic," said Dr. Christophe
Fournier, MSF's international president, who spent four days touring Zimbabwe.
"However catastrophic this epidemic is, it is only the most visible
manifestation of a much broader crisis in the whole country. Actually the whole
public health system in Zimbabwe is down, it has collapsed."
Zimbabwe's
cholera epidemic — blamed on collapsed water, sanitation and health services —
has killed over 3,600 people and infected 60,000 since August.
There
was no immediate comment from the Zimbabwean government to the group's charges.
The
next epidemic could be malaria, the group said, because Zimbabwe has been
unable to afford preventive measures such as insecticide-treated nets and peak
season for malaria is imminent.
The
AIDS crisis will worsen, because — in a country where one in five adults
carries the virus that causes AIDS — people aren't getting medications or
health advice.
Zimbabwe
has the world's highest inflation rate and faces acute shortages of most goods,
but MSF said it has been prevented from doing hunger surveys because the issue
is politically sensitive.
But
the U.N. says up to 7 million people, more than half the population, are
dependent on foreign food handouts, and MSF is concerned about malnutrition.
Zimbabwe's
general health collapse has also affected ordinary medical services like
prenatal treatment for pregnant women and treatment to ensure that mothers
don't pass the AIDS virus on to their children.
Fournier,
who has worked on medical emergencies around the world for 20 years, said only
in Zimbabwe had he "seen this kind of collapse ... in the absence of any
conflict, any war."
"A
major emergency infusion (of foreign aid) needs to be given to Zimbabwe and it
needs to be given now," Fournier said.
The
crisis is blamed on economic collapse linked to mismanagement and corruption
under President Robert Mugabe's rule.
Mugabe
remains president under a new unity government. Manuel Lopez, head of MSF's
Zimbabwe operations, said Tuesday he feared international donors would be
reluctant to pour funds into a government headed by Mugabe.
Lopez
said it can take six months to get a response from immigration authorities to
requests to bring in health care specialists, and visas and work permits cost
"an incredible amount."
Importing
medicines requires paying the government to test each batch, and the group has
seen the cost rise from $50 to $100 per batch for the cholera epidemic.
"The
situation has become very critical," Lopez said. "We cannot continue
with this nonsense."
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