Hundreds of people are dying of cholera in Zimbabwe amid an epidemic that President Robert Mugabe is trying to cover up.
The Daily Telegraph has learnt that dozens of people have died from the outbreak in the last two weeks alone.
With the country's infrastructure neglected for years by Mr Mugabe's government, large sections of Harare rely on standpipes and wells for water, increasing the risk of infection.
Most government medical staff downed what few tools they had last month to protest at the lack of medicines and equipment in state hospitals, leaving only only army doctors are available to treat the sick.
In Budiriro, a small, poverty-stricken township in the west of the capital, a policeman outside the local Polyclinic said more than 60 people had died in the last two weeks.
The perimeter fence was covered in plastic, preventing outsiders from looking in as many, including private doctors and some donors, accuse the government of grossly under-reporting cholera deaths. It says there have been 80 in the entire country.
A long-serving doctor in Harare said that the epidemic in the townships was the worst in living memory.
"It will get worse as the rains come," he said as the first summer showers drenched the city. "The laboratories are overwhelmed."
Medical assistance to sufferers - and unknown numbers are lying, dehydrated and dying at home - is provided by Unicef, Médecins Sans Frontières and the Zimbabwe National Army.
The humanitarian agencies providing medicines are also overwhelmed, according to western aid sources.
Linda Msimanga, 29, lives in one tiny room in Budiriro, and sat nursing her listless, mewling 14-month old daughter, Siyabonga, weeping as she showed the infant's pale, almost translucent hands.
The Daily Telegraph has learnt that dozens of people have died from the outbreak in the last two weeks alone.
With the country's infrastructure neglected for years by Mr Mugabe's government, large sections of Harare rely on standpipes and wells for water, increasing the risk of infection.
Most government medical staff downed what few tools they had last month to protest at the lack of medicines and equipment in state hospitals, leaving only only army doctors are available to treat the sick.
In Budiriro, a small, poverty-stricken township in the west of the capital, a policeman outside the local Polyclinic said more than 60 people had died in the last two weeks.
The perimeter fence was covered in plastic, preventing outsiders from looking in as many, including private doctors and some donors, accuse the government of grossly under-reporting cholera deaths. It says there have been 80 in the entire country.
A long-serving doctor in Harare said that the epidemic in the townships was the worst in living memory.
"It will get worse as the rains come," he said as the first summer showers drenched the city. "The laboratories are overwhelmed."
Medical assistance to sufferers - and unknown numbers are lying, dehydrated and dying at home - is provided by Unicef, Médecins Sans Frontières and the Zimbabwe National Army.
The humanitarian agencies providing medicines are also overwhelmed, according to western aid sources.
Linda Msimanga, 29, lives in one tiny room in Budiriro, and sat nursing her listless, mewling 14-month old daughter, Siyabonga, weeping as she showed the infant's pale, almost translucent hands.
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- Chango2000
- added this
- added November 19, 2008
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Mugabe had turned a paradise into a living hell. He has to go!
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- samthesixth
- 8 months ago
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The world doesn't want these African dictators out of power they serve a purpose and provide Europe with much needed resources
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