Zimbabwean Health Care System Breaking Down
Hospitals short of qualified personnel, equipment and drugs are sending Zimbabweans home without treatment, and a 300% rise in the cost
Alongside Zimbabwe’s political and economic crises, medical professionals report a health crisis amidst a crumbling health care system, shortages of drugs, emigration of specialists, equipment breakdowns, dwindling blood supplies and food scarcities. In recent months the prices of anti-retroviral drugs - a matter of life and death to those living with HIV-AIDS – have tripled, sending them out of the reach of many of those who need them to survive. One in four Zimbabweans is HIV-positive. The Community Working Group on Health, which promotes community participation in health planning, says most people in need of medical treatment are resorting to herbal remedies purchased in informal marketplaces. Working Group Director Itsi Rusike says those who do so run the risk of harmful effects from untested substances. Public hospitals, meanwhile, are sending patients home without medical care. In the early 1990s, Zimbabwe was recognized as having one of the continent’s best health care systems. But the government has cut health and education spending to channel funds to the military and its security forces. Now the country has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF. Deputy Health Minister Edwin Muguti says the government is committed to providing the country’s people with good medical care, but that it has been handicapped by a lack of support from Western countries. Critics respond that government economic and social policies are to blame for the crisis in Zimbabwean medicine.