Zimbabwe's healthcare system has collapsed. Life expectancy is the lowest in the world. Dead bodies accumulate in hospital mortuaries or are buried hastily and surreptitiously in rural areas by poverty-stricken family members. The most recent estimates suggest that between 3,000 and 3,500 die every week from HIV-related diseases although some people believe the numbers are significantly higher. And biblical problems of plague, starvation and its attendant diseases such as kwashiorkor are rife. Few people even try to obtain medical treatment as they cannot afford the exorbitant costs involved in travelling to hospitals (ambulances have no fuel either) nor can they afford to pay for drugs since patients or family members are required increasingly to purchase their own drugs. In many instances, ambulances have been replaced by ox-drawn carts, but animal feed is also in short supply.
The health service like the entire country requires rescuing from the murderous hands of Robert Mugabe. But the African Union and most African leaders seems paralysed by Mugabe's status as one of the last surviving liberation leaders. The West is also paralysed by fears of being charged with neo-colonialism if they attempt to oust Mugabe.
So it is left to Zimbabweans, without the desperately needed support of the region to rid themselves of this increasingly tyrannical regime. Zimbabwe is set to become the world's worst humanitarian disaster over the next few years, as healthy working-age Zimbabweans continue to leave, swelling the ranks of the Diaspora, and the remainder - the elderly, the young and the seriously ill - succumb to poverty, disease and starvation.
Zimbabwe's health in perspective
For most of human history the average human being could expect to live between 20 and 30 years. It was not until the rise in global prosperity and technological advances of the 20th century that life expectancy began to increase so that by 2003 on average life expectancy was 66.8 years worldwide. The residents of the wealthy countries that make up the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development could expect to live for 78.5 years(1). While increasing global prosperity and technological advances continue to drive improvements in health and human welfare for most humans, the residents of some countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, have seen little improvement and routinely die from preventable diseases.
Zimbabweans once enjoyed rising life expectancies and benefited from improvements in healthcare and wealth creation. Most of the progress made over the past century has now been lost. Life expectancy in Zimbabwe has regressed to a level not witnessed since the 1800s. The once efficient and functioning public health system has been all but destroyed and private healthcare is out of reach for most of the population. Zimbabwe's health and human rights crisis is the direct result of the policies of the government; policies that have received either tacit or explicit approval from most African governments. This report presents a perspective of the increasingly chaotic healthcare situation in Zimbabwe and its impact on neighbouring countries, and concludes with a discussion and policy recommendations for African governments and donor nations.
Much of the data and information that we present has been compiled from media reports from within Zimbabwe and from exiled Zimbabwean reporters. Readers should note that it is often difficult to obtain reliable information about the situation in the country given the severe and oppressive restrictions on the media and on any persons or organizations that oppose the Mugabe regime. Although we have endeavoured to report the most reliable and accurate data by using independent sources, such as the World Bank or United Nations, given the dire situation in Zimbabwe, it is not unreasonable to assume that much of the Zimbabwean government's own data is unreliable, out-dated or biased. Apart from the fact that the Mugabe regime is well known for manipulating data and the truth, so many Zimbabweans have fled the country that population-based data will be unreliable. In many instances we have relied on media reports and first hand accounts of the situation in Zimbabwe.
Notes:
(1) Indur Goklany (2007) The Improving State of the World (Cato Institute, Washington DC) p.31