UNICEF Executive Director M. Ann Veneman made a three-day visit in Zimbabwe at the end of which she announced a $5 million grant to provide salaries for workers in the health care system.

 

Zimbabwe is faced by an unprecedented cholera outbreak that has claimed 2,225 people in the last four months. About 42,500 other people have been infected and 1,550 new cases are being reported every day. The cholera epidemic has spread all throughout the country and has even crossed the borders into the neighboring South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique.

 

The situation is out of control and the disease is continuing to spread, as the health care system in the country seems to have never existed. Many hospitals have been forced to close due to a shortage of staff, drugs and equipment. People working in the health care system have been refusing to turn up for work, demanding salaries in foreign currency.

 

The Zimbabwe economy is down at this point mainly because of Robert Mugabe’s corrupt, violent and profoundly destructive reign, which has left more than 80 percent of the country’s population unemployed.

 

Veneman met Mugabe on Friday and discussed the country’s situation. Details of the discussion have not been entirely been made public but she said the President “is acknowledging there is a problem. He recognizes that cholera is a problem. He recognizes there is a problem with the water and the sewer systems.”

 

Veneman is the first head of a UN agency to visit Zimbabwe in three years. She visited the Budiriro treatment center, one of the 70 centers set up in response to the raging outbreak. UNICEF has provided funds, medicine and food to keep the center going since October, but it was overwhelmed with so many patients in need for treatment in recent months.

 

Veneman said a lack of clean water and proper hygiene was to blame for the current situation in the country. Also, there was an “urgent need” for funds to pay health workers in Zimbabwe. The money provided by UNICEF would give health workers US dollars stipends meant for them to use for transportation to and from work. Also, the agency is also providing medicines to hospitals clinics encouraging doctors to come back to work.

 

“The economy in Zimbabwe is crumbling, with the highest inflation rate in the world at 231 million percent. Over half the population is receiving food aid. Health centers have closed, and when the school term starts there is no guarantee that there will be enough teachers,” Veneman said.

 

The $5 million grant will surely make a difference for people facing the almost deadly disease, which causes a healthy person’s blood pressure to drop to possibly hypotensive levels, as fast as within just one hour from the time the symptoms start appearing. Some infected patients may die as soon as three hours from the time of infection, if they are not administered medical treatment.