Steve Hide is Operations Coordinator for Merlin and German NGO Welthungerhilfe (GAA) in Zimbabwe. He has been working in Zimbabwe since 2005 on various humanitarian medical projects. This is his first diary entry.
It takes us six hours to reach Gorodema, a rural area of Zimbabwe, from Harare, some of the journey over bad bush roads, at times crossing river beds. But when we get there the nursing staff are delighted to see us.
Medical supplies are low and no-one knows when or if patients will stop arriving for treatment.
So far the cholera outbreak has claimed 4,000 lives, and infected nearly 100,000 people. Cases have declined dramatically in the last month thanks to the onset of the dry season, as well as the concerted efforts of a task force of Zimbabwean and international health experts. But in some areas, the diarrheal disease - which can kill within 24 hours - still lingers, especially in isolated rural communities.
“We have been working day and night to look after these patients. It’s exhausting but we cannot stop,” comments one health worker at the clinic.
Merlin has been working in Gorodema since February. Medical teams are setting up oral rehydration points (ORPs) where seriously ill cholera victims can seek immediate treatment with oral rehydration salts, a simple salt and sugar solution that can arrest the disease or buy time so the patient can reach a clinic for life-saving intravenous fluids that also rehydrate.
In the aftermath of the epidemic, Merlin is continuing to visit communities like Gorodema to check for resurges of cholera, and to ensure that rural clinics have vital stocks of medicines.
Often the teams arrive at clinics to find the hard-working staff doing back to back shifts to tend to patients.
In cases of acute cholera patients have to seek treatment immediately. But this is delayed in Apostolic communities due to strong beliefs in spiritual healing. Merlin has been able to set up ORPs in these communities, which in some cases has enabled community members to access early treatment.
In Gorodema, as in other parts of Zimbabwe, Merlin is working with German NGO Welthungerhilfe (GAA), funded by the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office.
The program is expected to last until August 2009, with continued surveillance and support, and also training of health workers and pre-positioning of supplies to avert future outbreaks.
Zimbabwe: Cholera rates drop for first time in six months
Help us save more lives: Please donate now