ActionAid works with WHO combating cholera in Zimbabwe
Barney Porter
ABC - Australia
Dec 11, 2008
ELEANOR HALL: Let's go now to Zimbabwe. The World Health Organisation has set up a command centre in Harare to try to control the cholera outbreak which is threatening to become a regional crisis.
The WHO says that nearly 800 people have died in the epidemic so far and it is predicting that as many as 60,000 people may soon be infected, with more cases being reported on Zimbabwe's borders.
And as the health problems worsen, there are allegations that Zimbabwe's Government is intensifying its persecution of opposition supporters.
Barney Porter has more.
BARNEY PORTER: WHO spokesman Paul Garwood has just visited Budiriro - a heavily populated suburb on Harare's western outskirts - where about half of the cases of cholera have been recorded.
PAUL GARWOOD: This is an area where we are hearing that access to safe, clean drinking water is limited. Where sanitation, you know, appropriate hygiene standards are stretched and where health facilities, particularly the cholera treatment centres that I visited today, are under great stress.
BARNEY PORTER: Now, there have been some media reports showing pictures of raw sewerage flowing down streets. How widespread, how extensive is the problem of the breakdown of infrastructure?
PAUL GARWOOD: It is quite extensive and we are seeing in many parts of the country, aging water infrastructure and sanitation infrastructure as well, being in great need of upgrade and repair.
BARNEY PORTER: As the Zimbabwean Government insists the situation is under control, the WHO's worst case scenario predicts up to 60,000 Zimbabweans may yet become infected with the disease.
And there's a wider concern.
PAUL GARWOOD: We're coming into a couple of risk periods now with the rainy season commencing as well as people travelling for Christmas to other locations, whether inside the country or across borders. So, there is the risk of the spread or the transit of cholera.
BARNEY PORTER: Thousands of Zimbabweans have crossed the border in the past few weeks, many of them looking for medical help.
There are already major concentrations of cholera cases in Beitbridge on the South African border, and in Mudzi, on the border with Mozambique.
Elisabeth Byrs is a spokeswoman for The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
ELISABETH BYRS: We are worried about regional dimension. There are already some cases in Botswana and of course in South Africa; but those two countries can cope with the situation. We are more worried if this outbreak was crossing the border to Zambia or Mozambique, because they don't have the infrastructure to cope with a major outbreak if it was the case.
BARNEY PORTER: The WHO's command and control centre is being set up in conjunction with Zimbabwe's Health Ministry, to begin a co-ordinated response to the country's health challenges. It will liaise with several international aid organisations that have an established presence in Zimbabwe.
Austcare's partner, ActionAid International, is already distributing water purification tablets, hygiene kits, and helping with an education campaign to teach people how to avoid the disease.
Medecins Sans Frontieres has recently bolstered its Dutch, Spanish and Belgian contingents in the country and the Red Cross is also playing a key role.
Peter Lundberg is the head of the Red Cross in Zimbabwe.
PETER LUNDBERG: Cholera is a disease which normally is easily to contain, but here we are also struggling with the fact that health facilities is not really working any longer. So it is a combination of problems which we are trying to mitigate as much as possible by injecting these humanitarian relief.
BARNEY PORTER: The spreading cholera epidemic, chronic food shortages, and hyper-inflation - most recently estimated at 231-million per cent - have highlighted the collapse of the southern African nation and prompted growing calls for President Robert Mugabe's resignation.
But as the international effort to stem the cholera outbreak gathers pace, there are more signs of a government crackdown on dissidents.
Zimbabwe's High Court has ordered police to find Jestina Mukoko, a former journalist and head of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, who was taken away at gunpoint in Harare earlier this month. The police have denied being involved in her disappearance.
The Opposition Leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has told the BBC he holds President Mugabe personally responsible for her life and those of missing opposition MPs.
MORGAN TSVANGIRAI: These abductions are deliberate attempts to decimate, intimidate and harass the opposition. So, I can only say that Mugabe, at this stage he is responsible for the lives of those people and that he should release those people.
ELEANOR HALL: That is Zimbabwe's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai ending that report by Barney Porter.