Posted on 01/27/2009 8:49:33 PM PST by Clive
By Lisa Schlein
Geneva
23 January 2009
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says a nightmare scenario is unfolding in Zimbabwe as the number of cholera deaths and cases continues to mount. The Red Cross says it is hit with a severe funding crisis and this is hampering its ability to contain the deadly disease.
Senior health officer for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Tammam Aloudat, has recently returned from Zimbabwe. He says the cholera outbreak in the country is increasing in scale and it is claiming more lives.
"The scenario that was described a few weeks ago and was told to be an excessive nightmare scenario is happening," said Aloudat. "It is unraveling in front of our eyes. We have close to 50,000 cases and close to 3,000 deaths already."
Several weeks ago, humanitarian agencies were warning that Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic could peak at 60,000. They called this a nightmare scenario and said all measures must be taken to contain the disease.
Aloudat says the Red Cross and other aid agencies have the expertise and the will to control a disease that, under more normal circumstances, can be fairly easily contained and prevented.
"Today as we speak, the Red Cross is providing treatment, providing sanitation, water and providing volunteers who are going to their communities to educate them and providing personal hygiene materials," said Aloudat. "This is what has the potential to avert a cholera outbreak. We can definitely contain this outbreak given the resources. We are not anymore in the 19th century."
But, that is the problem. The Red Cross is not being given the resources, the money it needs to carry out its life-saving mission. The agency appealed for over $9 million at the end of last year. Aloudat says this appeal is about 60 percent under-funded.
"The lack of funding is probably a mixture of several aspects and most important, we have seen the funding drop when Zimbabwe dropped off the TV screens. It is not about the politics or persons here. It is about the ability to reach people who are now dying of cholera and need assistance now. I think linking the humanitarian assistance to cholera to politics is not a good idea."
Aloudat says Zimbabwe's health system is completely shattered. He says health professionals are not going to work because they are hungry and they are not being paid. He says one of the most important things that must be done to control the epidemic is to top off the salaries of doctors and nurses so they report for work.
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Impossible. Everyone in Zimbabwe is a multi-billionaire.
>>Impossible. Everyone in Zimbabwe is a multi-billionaire.<<
Right on the money. No pun intended.
Not to worry.
0bama will have one of our Infantry Divisions
over there ASAP.
Zimbabwe, shimbabwe....
If you think THAT’S BAD, just wait until next winter under Obamanomics!!!
With the O-bots in power we all will have enough trouble just protecting ourselves and our families from the grasping left. Zimbabwe will be a hellhole until Mugabe gets the ‘ol Mussolini treatment, so there’s no point in wasting a penny or a moment’s thought there. No Mugabe on a rope, no improvement.
Zimbabwe, confiscating from the successful and distributing to the feral, has been a nightmare for all of this century.
So they got that going for them.
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Yes at least now they can be proud that they murdered or ran off all the whites who fed the country. Scr*w Zimbabwe. They’re just following a pattern of wreaking “vengeance” on whites, it always bites them in the azz, it happens everytime.
But Zimbabwe is, and heading rapidly backwards. Brought there largely by the combined efforts of the United Nations, the Red Cross, and assorted other liberal international do-gooders who insisted it was far better for Africans to die under black rule than to live under white rule.
Hang Mugabe, but also hang his many enablers who are still busy creating more Mugabes.
No matter how bad we think we have it in the US right now— we should all get on our knees and thank God that we have the opportunities, luxuries, comfort and security we have. (and, btw, I’m out of work due to a merger, but I’m blessed to an absurd level beyond those in Zimbabwe. I almost hesitate to ask: know ANYONE who needs a general in-house corporate lawyer with an excellent reputation and good refences from senior management, like, NOW? ;))
“The lack of funding is probably a mixture of several aspects and most important, we have seen the funding drop when Zimbabwe dropped off the TV screens...”
Where’s Matty? (Zim wouldn’t allow Carter back)
How many millions were spent on the recent inaug/cor-ination?
Why isn’t the Red/Crescent cross hounding the news stations for coverage?
If this has dropped off of the TV screens, they need to reevaluate... perhaps they could hire Carter as a spokesperson?
Calling Danny Glover....you have a phone call....please pick up.
What??? What did they do with the other half of the monies donated for 9/11 that they kept and did not disperse to the people hurt by 9/11 and probably made lots of interest on?
The other is that after 9/11, allegedly instead of donating the extra blood the people in the North East had donated to them, they got rid of it. If they couldn't get the money for it, no one was going to get the blood.
Evolution marches on.
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