/ 5 March 2009

Zim cholera figures ‘most likely a dramatic underestimate’

More than 4 000 people have died in a cholera epidemic that has hit at least 85 000 people, Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Thursday, warning the figures were likely an underestimate.

Tsvangirai told an emergency meeting of health workers that the epidemic that has swept the country since August was a sign of the collapse of Zimbabwe’s health system.

”We have had a clear warning of this in the national trauma of over 85 000 reported cases of cholera, and over 4 000 reported cholera deaths by the end of February 2009,” he said.

”This is most likely a dramatic underestimate of the real figures given the unreported cases and deaths in communities,” he added.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday put the official death toll at 3 955, citing figures collated the previous day.

”Those figures are certainly underestimated since we do not have access to many places,” a spokesperson at its Geneva headquarters said. The WHO is expected to issue updated figures on Friday.

Zimbabwe’s health system was once the envy of Africa, but nearly a decade of economic collapse has left hospitals and clinics in shambles.

Doctors and nurses went on strike for months to protest against their salaries, which had been reduced to pittances by world-record inflation.

Health workers began returning to the job after Tsvangirai joined a unity government three weeks ago, but they remain without medicine or basic supplies to treat their patients.

Zimbabwe is relying largely on international aid to rein in the cholera epidemic, which has compounded the health crisis in a country where 1,3-million people have HIV.

”The challenges are significant but if the government coordinates its activities effectively and if we build upon the relationships with our stakeholders, we will be able to overcome,” Tsvangirai said.

He said the health sector needed urgent funding to train more staff and source supplies to avoid dependence on foreign aid.

”While the cholera epidemic has necessitated an emergency response we cannot be permanently locked in an emergency mode,” he said.

Tsvangirai became prime minister last month in power-sharing government with President Robert Mugabe, aimed at defusing political tensions and tackling the country’s stunning economic collapse.

Test for new government
Meanwhile Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court on Thursday granted prosecutors the right to appeal a ruling granting bail to Movement for Democratic Change official Roy Bennett, in a case that has raised tension in the new unity government.

The court said Bennett will remain in custody until a hearing date is set.

”The accused shall remain in custody until the Supreme Court has determined the date for the hearing,” said prosecutor Chris Mutangadura.

Bennett, who was set to become a junior minister in the unity government agreed between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, was arrested on February 13 and charged with plotting terrorism.

He faces up to life in jail if convicted.

His arrest is an early test for the new government, which many hope will take action to end the country’s economic crisis. — AFP, Reuters