Health System Implodes As Zimbabwe Suffers

摘要

Zimbabwe's escalating cholera epidemic could be just a hint of what's to come as the country's healthcare infrastructure collapses.rnAs New Scientist went to press 11,735 cases of cholera and 484 deaths from the disease had been reported, while hospital closures and shortages of health workers and medical supplies are spreading the misery beyond cholera.rnMaternal health - a barometer for the state of a country's healthcare system - is in disarray. Two maternity hospitals in the capital, Harare, have closed and women needing Caesareans are being forced to seek help in rural areas or to pay for private healthcare if they can afford it. "Women giving birth in Zimbabwe are at serious risk, with maternity services that are either closed or not sufficiently equipped, or where there aren't enough healthcare people working there," says Georges Tadonke, head of the Zimbabwe branch of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.