Zimbabwe Cholera Outbreak Spreads to Neighboring Countries

Well I'm sure we're all quite aware by now of the potent threat the cholera epidemic present in Zimbabwe poses; its collapsed infrastructure unable to prevent connected water systems...

Perhaps this will be the final straw that earns Mugabe his head on a platter...

I found a nice micrograph of the bacterium that causes Cholera,
vibrio cholerae, some old slide from U-Consin apparently:

Anyway, here's the Telegraph with the developing story:

"SOUTH AFRICA: Eight deaths and around 500 cases have been reported, most of them Zimbabweans crossing the border to seek treatment.

The South African town of Musina is just over the frontier from Beitbridge, the second worst affected area in Zimbabwe. Army medics are being sent to reinforce a treatment centre in Musina and environmental health officers are going to towns near the frontier.

South Africa is also trying to protect itself by sending some £30,000 of medical supplies, including chlorine tablets and body bags, to keep Zimbabwe's shattered public hospitals open. South African experts are in Beitbridge trying to repair its collapsing water system and supply residents by tanker. Rivers along the border are being screened for cholera after the Limpopo was found to be contaminated.

MOZAMBIQUE: One of Zimbabwe's worst affected districts is Mudzi, on the country's eastern border with Mozambique. That country's health authorities are on "maximum alert" against the spread of cholera, said Ivo Garrido, the health minister.

Specialists have been sent to the border areas, with one newspaper reporting 169 cases of cholera in Changara district, most of them Zimbabweans. None has died.

ZAMBIA: Zimbabwe's northern neighbour has imposed health controls at all three of their shared border posts. One Zimbabwean has died at a cholera centre at the Chirundu crossing. There is a ban on importing uncertified food and anyone entering or leaving Zambia is screened for cholera symptoms.

Mwendoi Akakandelwa, the deputy health minister, said Zambia was on high alert but he ruled out closing the border.

BOTSWANA: At least one Zimbabwean has been treated for cholera in Botswana. Teams have been sent to the border town of Matsiloje, where illegal immigrants live in crowded conditions, to investigate possible infections. The government says it has sufficient medical supplies."

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In case you were wondering what it was like IN ZIMBABWE, here's a report from the Sunday Herald:

"AS ROBERT Mugabe's Zimbabwe government swallowed its pride and asked for international help to contain a cholera epidemic it had insisted a few days earlier was under control, body bags were among the items it requested.

Zimbabweans are dying in their hundreds from a disease which, in the 21st century, should not be a mass killer.

Some are dying as they reach Zimbabwe's major hospitals, only to find them closed because they have no drugs, running water or working equipment. It is in these institutions that the United Nations and the World Health Organisation (WHO) count the dead, arriving at an official death toll of 575.

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But the real number of dead is many times greater. The UN and WHO are unable to count those who die in their own homes in the urban townships or in the huts and fields of the rural areas.

WHO says that the normal fatality rate in a modern cholera outbreak, where clean water and medication are available, is below 1%. But the death rate among infected Zimbabweans is at least 4.5% and as high as 30% in remote areas, WHO said."

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It's a pretty grim situation...