Dangerous Bedfellows: Cholera Stricken Zimbabwe Braces for Malaria Outbreak

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — In Zimbabwe, the Cholera crisis has claimed more than 1,500 lives. Now aid workers fear Malaria brought on by intense seasonal rains. With heavy precipitation comes stagnant water — ideal breeding conditions for the mosquito that transmits the disease. With nearly 30,000 people suffering from Cholera in a country economically alienated and impoverished, few among Zimbabwe’s malnourished and poor can survive Malaria, too.

International aid organization Save the Children reports one of the most dire humanitarian crises in recent history. The organization’s emergency manager Amanda Weisbaum told IRIN News, “In terms of access, Zimbabwe, comparatively, is one of the worst areas I have worked in. At least in Darfur, when we ran out of stock we could fly in supplies to the areas we worked in – here we cannot.”

Weisbaum, who has also worked in Chad, the Sudan and Niger, reports that food shortages, limited foreign exchange, communications obstacles, and poor donor confidence rank among the current challenges for aid organizations trying to assist in the crisis.

Read more here.

Source: IRIN News