ZIMBABWE and KENYA: Almost 100,000 people in Africa have been affected by a recent cholera epidemic that continues to grow; the question is: how much will it grow?
It was first reported in Zimbabwe where the World Health Organization reported that the disease has already affected more than 91,000 people, and killed more than 4,000.
Most foreign journalists have been banned from reporting in Zimbabwe, but an Africa correspondent, Andrew Georghegan, managed to get inside and examine the reasons it hasn’t been contained.
Andrew Georghegan reports: “In a poor suburban community women and children stand in a drain, collecting water. Nearby, raw sewage trickles down the road, weaving its way between piles of rotting rubbish. It’s hardly surprising that cholera has claimed dozens of people in this neighborhood.” He asks a local woman, “Can you tell me, why are you getting water from here?”
Zimbabwean Woman: “There is no water from the tap.”
Andrew: “Do you think this water is safe to drink?”
Woman: “It’s not safe.”
Andrew: “So why are you drinking it?”
Woman: “There is nothing we can do, so we can just use it.”
Andrew: “Do you worry about getting cholera from drinking this water?”
Woman: “Of course we do. But there’s no option.”
Richard Sollom from Physicians for Human Rights was in Zimbabwe and shared, “Cholera only happens in failed states, or in times of war or natural disaster.” Sollom continues, “ In Zimbabwe, we see a cholera epidemic which is the second largest in the past 20 years after what took place in, during the Rwandan genocide, in the refugee camps in eastern Congo where there were about, I believe there were about 50,000 or so cases.”
It is noted that Zimbabwe’s infrastructure has collapsed and that sewage pipes are broken, leaving drinking water contaminated. Nothing is being done to rectify the problems.
To top this all off, cholera is now being reported in Kenya as well, with the Kenyan government issuing a cholera alert to her people.
The Ministry of Public Health issued an alert on Tuesday, March 17th, following an outbreak in various areas that has killed 25 people, with 660 others being treated for the disease.
The Public Health director, Shariff Shanaaz, has urged people to thoroughly wash their hands before and after eating and using toilet facilities to avoid contracting the highly contagious disease.
The WHO has declared that Kenya is facing an acute health crisis. Eight districts in Nyanza, Rift Valley and North Eastern provinces have been affected.
Dr. Shanaaz shared that following the outbreak in Kenya, that affected areas were visited, adding that supplies of chlorine powder and tablets to treat drinking water had been sent out.
The disease has also spread to Shikusa Prison, where at least one prisoner has been admitted to Kakamega Provincial General Hospital after contracting cholera in the main jail.
It has been reported that 12 prisoners died in their cells in Mozambique, although this isn’t necessarily being attributed to cholera.
Cholera is an acute, diarrheal illness caused by infection of the intestine with the bacterium vibrio cholerae. The infection is often mild, but sometimes it can be severe; without treatment, death can occur within hours due to dehydration.
Please join us in prayer for these affected individuals and their families. May vastly improved sanitation systems be miraculous provisions from the Lord. May He multiply the amount of liquids in their exhausted bodies and lead them to areas where they can receive appropriate treatment. And may this epidemic be contained and wiped out for the glory of God.
