Cholera is an easily treatable disease. As shown in London in 1854, all it takes to defeat this disease is clean water. But in the absence of clean water, it causes a lethal diarrhea and loss of fluids. The utter breakdown of services in Zimbabwe has led to a cholera epidemic. The graphic to this post is a grave digger.
A ferocious cholera epidemic, spread by water contaminated with human excrement, has stricken more than 16,000 people across Zimbabwe since August and killed more than 780. President Robert G. Mugabe said Thursday that the epidemic had ended, but health experts are warning that the number of cases could surpass 60,000, and that half the country’s population of 12 million is at risk.While we all spend money on who marries whom, or what church is in communion where, and fling vicious remarks back and forth, there is a silent and vicious and preventable killer stalking southern Africa and killing her children. Not glamorous like vestments; not dramatic like pirates. Just tens of thousands of people dying of a very preventable bacterial disease under the radar.
4 comments:
I dare say people in the 19th century seem to have been far more hands on and practical, than we :-(
Ah, but Mr. Mugabe has just declared that there is no more cholera problem in his country. That madman has to go.
Like Bp. Chane said in the post below, for the "conservatives" to think that the most important issue facing the church is the sexuality of the Bishop of New Hampshire suggests a level of self-absorption that is difficult to square with the teachings of Christ.
I definitely remember The Gospels telling us to feed the hungry & care for the sick. But chasing the gay & lesbian folks out of public life ? Not so much... :P
I seriously hope that one of the first foreign policy initiatives of the Obama Adminstration, is to force this mo'fo' (Mugabe) OUT! (To cozy accomodations in The Hague, perchance?)
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