Zimbabwe: From bad to worse!

A recent cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe has claimed more than 1,000 men, women and children thus far according to health workers in the field. Unicef says it plans on providing a month's supply of water treatment chemicals for the residents in the capital city of Harare where water supply has been cut off because the government of Robert Mugabe is unable to buy chemicals needed to clean tap water.

Almost 12,000 people have contracted cholera since August in Zimbabwe, and the outbreak threatens to grow more dire and deadly!

Residents are digging shallow holes in their yards in hopes of finding water. In some cases, nearby holes served as latrines. Other residents were getting water from polluted rivers. According to those working in Harare and throughout the region, the situation is quickly moving from bad to worse. “Just be strong. This will come to an end one day,” MDC Vice President Thokozani Khupe told cholera patients while visiting the Beatrice Infectious Diseases Hospital in the capital Monday. At Beatrice hospital in Harare, bodies were piled in the mortuary, awaiting relatives to collect them. “We are receiving up to 15 bodies a day since the cholera outbreak. That is why we have started piling them like that. We cannot cope with the situation,” a hospital official said.

The nation's four major hospitals have shut down, said former U.S. President Jimmy Carter who visited the region last week. He warned that the disease will continue to spread into South Africa unless action is taken. The disease is already spreading as a result of some victims traveling to Botswana and other neighboring countries for treatment. “This is now a regional disaster,” Khupe said.

Cholera is a highly contagious disease that causes severe diarrhea and vomiting. At this point, one thing is certain -- without emergency assistance, “this will come to an end . . . .”