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HARARE - Zimbabwean doctors yesterday called on the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) to ensure government accounts for every death as a result of archaic diseases amid unprecedented public outrage over typhoid deaths.
Zimbabwe’s government was facing scrutiny from the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) after noting the continued deplorable state of service delivery in Zimbabwe’s cities, towns and Harare in particular, saying the local authorities’ suburbs have become the epitome of failure to prioritise a safe and clean environment as a key tenet of a strong primary healthcare system.
“...we call upon the ZHRC to institute an investigation into the continued outbreaks of these archaic diseases which are preventable and proffer recommendations to both the councils and the government,” ZADHR secretary Evans Masitara told an interface meeting yesterday with the State-run ZHRC, represented by its chairperson, commissioner Elasto Mugwadi.
“We believe these continued outbreaks are a health rights violation and smack of negligence and incompetency on the part of the duty bearers.”
This comes as two children are reported to have lost their lives with total suspected cases of 604, and the outbreak spreading beyond Mbare — the disease’s epicentre — to adjacent suburbs such as Budiriro and Glen View, where many have been sickened by contaminated water and food.
“Residents are daily subjected to unsafe drinking water, burst sewer pipes and uncollected garbage.
“These conditions are conducive for the outbreak of communicable diseases and not only typhoid,” Masitara said.
Another risk is cholera, a bacterial disease that tends to break out amid intense rains in parts of Harare.
“As we all recall, Zimbabwe was attacked by a cholera outbreak in 2008 which saw deaths and over 99 000 reported cases,” Masitara said.
A cholera outbreak that started in August 2008 killed over 4 000 people and left nearly 100 000 ill. The epidemic was officially declared over in July 2009.
2010/11 also had sporadic outbreaks of typhoid in Harare.
“The conditions that favour the outbreaks are the same and this calls us to ask, have we seen nothing and have we heard nothing?” Masitara said.
Typhoid — a bacterial disease spread through poor food hygiene and contaminated water — occasionally breaks out in Zimbabwe’s poorer townships, where water supplies are still basic more than three decades after independence.
Untreated, the disease can lead to complications in the gut and head which can kill up to one in five patients.
Masitara told the ZHRC that NGOs — under the Civil Society Health Emergency Response Coordinating Committee (CSHERCC) — had called for the setup of a commission of inquiry that looks into curbing preventable diseases.
Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) executive director, Itai Rusike, said that as long as the water crisis in Harare was not addressed, residents will continue to be exposed to diseases such as cholera and typhoid.
“The causes of the 2008 outbreak have not been addressed and the main reason for the typhoid outbreak is the unavailability of water. People are resorting to alternative sources of water which are not safe,” Rusike said.
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) chief executive, Mfundo Mlilo, blamed erratic water supplies and poor waste management for the typhoid outbreak.
“..we are concerned about this and one of our resolutions is to engage State actors so that we find a lasting solution.”
“We believe the ZHRC has a role to play in holding the Harare City Council as well as other local authorities to account,” Mlilo said.

SENIOR doctors and specialists yesterday joined striking junior doctors, further paralysing services at government hospitals mostly in Harare and Bulawayo.

Public hospitals’ outpatients departments were a sorry sight, as patients were left stranded following the industrial action by doctors.
The situation at the country’s major referral hospitals in Harare and Bulawayo has taken a frightening turn, with obstetrician and gynaecologist registrars also downing tools.
This potentially puts the lives of expecting mothers, especially those requiring surgery, and their unborn babies at risk.
In a statement, the registrars, who are specialist trainees in obstetrics and gynaecology, said they no longer felt it was safe for the patients if they continued in the absence of senior resident medical officers.
“We tried to continue working, but the demands are so exhausting, such that we fear we may end up making fatal errors resulting in unwanted maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality,” the registrars said.
A2 paediatrics casualty at Parirenyatwa Hospital, which deals with children, was also shut down.
In a notice, one I Ticklay, the acting head of department paediatrics, to Noah Madziva, the clinical director, said the section had been closed in “line with contingency plans”.
“All paediatric patients will be seen and managed in main causality,” the circular read.
A tour of Parirenyatwa Hospital by the NewsDay Weekender crew yesterday revealed the shocking situation, which is most likely going to cost some lives.
Hospital emergency rooms were staffed largely by nurses and interns and waiting rooms packed with patients, many on stretchers.
Hordes of patients sat in the outpatients department in long, winding queues. The serious ones lay on stretchers, with no one to attend to them except for their relatives, who were frantically trying to get them help.
With dejected faces, the patients sat on the wooden benches unsure of when they would get to see a doctor.
“We have been here since 10 in the morning, but it is almost 2pm and we have not been attended to,” one sickly looking man, who was coughing badly, said.
A young man in his early 20s and on a stretcher, struggled to sit up maybe to get some attention, but no one came.
The pain on his face was quite evident and his swollen feet stretched out before him looked horrendous.
“We hear they are on strike or go-slow. We are not sure. All we know is there is no doctor to help us and many of us will go home unattended,” a distraught woman who was struggling to breathe, said.
The stuffy room was filled to capacity as both patients and concerned relatives milled around waiting for absolution that never came.
The situation remained dire, as many patients failed to be attended to, as most hospitals were operating with skeleton staff.
Striking doctors are deadlocked with the government over long-standing grievances which include an announcement by government that it would no longer employ them upon completion of their two-year internship, a situation that would render them jobless.
The doctors are also pressing for the government to raise their on-call allowances and want it to provide them with a duty-free motor vehicle import scheme, among other issues.
The Health ministry frantically tried to avert the disaster by offering to create 250 new posts, but the doctors scoffed at the offer, which has no time frame.
On Wednesday, as a last-ditch attempt the Health ministry sent out a desperate plea to the doctors urging them to return to work.
Hospital officials also tried to rattle the doctors into coming to work by circulating a threatening statement.
However, the doctors would have none of it and carried on with the strike.
“We have noted with utter disappointment the new tactics by various clinical directors at central hospitals, that instead of engaging doctors and try to find solutions to our current demands, they have reverted to threats and victimisation,” Edgar Munatsi, Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors’ Association president said.
Meanwhile, health stakeholders have rallied behind the doctors urging the ministry to urgently address their concerns.
The Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) said the current situation could result in prolonged human suffering and avoidable deaths.
“As CWGH, we strongly believe that the current labour dispute could have been resolved amicably if the government had honoured the promises it made to the medical practitioners last year,” Itai Rusike, CWGH’s director, said.
“It is surprising that the ministry of Health Child Care has now offered to open up 250 new posts, for junior doctors and 2 000 for nurses when it has not fulfilled last year’s promises to the same doctors.”
Meanwhile, the doctors have vowed to press on with the strike until all their concerns have been dealt with in their entirety.”

BY PHYLLIS MBANJE February 18, 2017