Zimbabwe's health challenges

doi:10.1136/bmj.b930

Published 16 March 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b930
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b930

Feature

International Health

Zimbabwe’s health challenges

Ryan Truscott, freelance journalist

¹ Harare

truscottryan@hotmail.com

With the formation of a unity government in February, Zimbabweis hoping that years of crisis and mismanagement are finallyover. But rebuilding the country’s shattered health systemwill be a mammoth task, as Ryan Truscott reports

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The much publicised cholera epidemic that has killed nearly4000 people and infected 88 000 since August has highlightedthe dire state of Zimbabwe’s health system. Once the envyof the southern African region, Zimbabwe’s public hospitalsare now often little more than stripped shells. Harare’sCentral Hospital closed down its intensive care unit six yearsago, and lack of food, drugs, and equipment forced the closureof the children’s ward in October.¹ Patients lucky enoughto find a functioning hospital to admit them have reported beingasked to bring blankets, food, drips, and bandages. Some ruralclinics do not even stock paracetamol.

In the past few years doctors and nurses have repeatedly goneon strike over wages, which often fell below $10 (£7; ${euro}$ 8) a month. Many have joined the steady exodus of professionalsfrom the country, seeking employment in neighbouring South Africaand further afield in Europe and . . . [Full text of this article]