More misery for Zimbabwe children as cholera outbreak kills 3,000

The body count from Zimbabwe’s cholera out break has topped the 3,000 mark, bringing the situation dangerously close to the “worst case scenario,” the United Nations said today.

The disease has killed a total of 3,028 people and infected 57,702, the UN’s World Health Organisation (WHO) said, making it the biggest and deadliest to hit Africa in 14 years. The WHO said last month as many as 60,000 Zimbabweans may be infected with the disease by March.

This latest death toll is a rise of more than 1,000 deaths in the past 15 days in the country, which is in the midst of a political and economic crisis which has paralysed health services. “We are close to the worst-case scenario,” Elizabeth Byrs, UN spokeswoman told Bloomberg news agency today. “It’s a very, very dire situation. With the total collapse of the whole system, it will take time to put the health system back on track.” Speaking to Johannesburg’s Times newspaper today, South African Health Minister Barbara Hogan described the spread of the disease as “scary.”

Zimbabwe has experienced a decade of economic recession and is lurching towards economic collapse. It has the world’s highest inflation rate, estimated at 231 million per cent in July 2008. Eighty per cent of the population lives on less than $1 a day. As a result Zimbabwe is facing a humanitarian crisis of massive proportions. The southern African nation’s health, sewage and water systems have already collapsed, worsening the cholera outbreak. The water-bourne disease, causes sickness and diarrhoea that can lead to fatal dehydration and shock.

Children are bearing the brunt of the turmoil. Cholera has only added more misery to the already dire situation. The Zimbabwean newspaper said last week: “For the kids, the year 2008 saw no schooling as all schools closed. The year is in terms of academics, a tragedy, a complete write off. Kids faced cholera, persecution, they faced starvation and they faced death. “Those who survived faced cholera in a country whose health system is collapsed,” it went on. “Those that saw off cholera now face a sure death by starvation.”

SOS Children has three Children's Villages in the country and is working directly with families and communities to empower them to effectively protect and care for their children. The organisation has started community outreach programmes and medical centres which specialise in providing care for children and their families across Zimbabwe. SOS Children provides clothes, food, school fees, medical treatment, housing improvements and counselling, to more than 5000 children a year in Zimbabwe. Help SOS Children contiune its work in Zimbabwe by sponsoring a child

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children