This former “breadbasket” of Africa’s health system has collapsed, due to a rapidly disintegrating economy and the horrific corruption within Zimbabwe’s government. These issues have led to a terrifying chain reaction that has led to a desperate human-rights issue that has been largely ignored.
What Doctors Have to Say
A recent report from Physicians for Human Rights helps paint a picture of the health crisis that is raging through Zimbabwe. The doctors explain that in Zimbabwe the collapse of the health care system is “unprecedented in scale and scope” and that “the maintenance of public health…has abruptly deteriorated.” Physicians for Human Rights also quoted the director of a mission hospital who said “…now there is no intensive care unit in Harare [the capital city]. If we had an intensive care unit…it would be immediately full…As it is, they just die.”
The Hospitals
Hospitals have no running water, are without electricity, and lack even the most basic medical supplies. Even doctors are almost impossible to come by within a population of over 11 million people and only 900 doctors left to care for them. The primary hospital in Havare, Parirenyatwe Hospital, has been closed since November. This closure has left patients with no where to turn and as given many, with normally treatable illnesses, a virtual death sentence. Adding fuel to an already raging fire, a cholera epidemic is rapidly spreading and people are dying from anthrax due to eating animals’ decaying flesh.
How It Got This Bad
This history helps one to understand how a once admired heath care system collapsed so entirely. Though it is very difficult to accurately access information about the situation in Zimbabwe, due to the government’s strict control over the media, this much is known. Zimbabwe was a major and affluent tobacco producer until Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugaby, seized the majority of the white owned farms to give to black citizens who did not own land. This caused Zimbabwe’s agriculturally based economy to drastically decline leading to wide spread devastation. With a inflation rate averaging around 620% per year and an unemployment rate of over 80%, it has become increasingly difficult for anyone, including aid organizations, to satisfy the populations need for food and fuel, and nearly impossible to procure even the most basic medical supplies.
The Time to Act Is Now
In conclusion, Zimbabwe has gone from a country envied by others, to a country with the lowest life expectancy rate in the world, only 37 years of age for men and 34 years for women. Zimbabwe is a country that is in desperate need of international intervention. This humanitarian disaster is not only a horrific story, but also a warning of the danger from a bad economy and power hungry leaders. The international community must stop ignoring Zimbabwe, and realize that without immediate help the people of Zimbabwe will continue dying.
More Information
“Country Profile: Zimbabwe”
“Zimbabwe Is Dying”
www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/opinion/17herbert.html
Works Cited
Herbert, Bob. “Zimbabwe Is Dying.” The New York Times 17 Jan. 2009.
Wines, Michael. “With Health System in Tatters, Zimbabwe Stands Defenseless” The
New York Times 5 Feb. 2004.
“Country Profile: Zimbabwe.” BBC News 13 Feb. 2009.
“The World Factbook: Zimbabwe.” CIA: The World Fact Book 10 Feb. 2009.
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