by Bill Kavanagh: As our President-Elect said during the campaign (while his opponent was ‘suspending’ his campaign to save the economy), the President often has to deal with more than one thing at a time. There’s no doubt that our imploding domestic economy is Job One for the incoming Chief Executive, but there are other crises he must address— and the death spiral in Zimbabwe is one that requires urgent attention from world leaders.
Bob Herbert’s column today in the NY Times details, anecdotally, the extent of the ongoing epidemics in Zimbabwe, accompanied by an almost total lack of health services in this country, which is still today under dictator Robert Mugabe’s iron fist, despite elections and an unfulfilled agreement to share power with the victor. The situation there strains belief in its seriousness. Every day that it remains unaddressed involves a mounting— and preventable— loss of life.
According to a Zimbabwean obstetrician, quoted in an emergency report by the organization, Physicians for Human Rights:
“A major problem is the loss of life and fetal wastage we are seeing with obstetric patients. They come so late, the fetuses are already dead. We see women with eclampsia who have been seizing for 12 hours. There is no intensive care unit here, and now there is no intensive care in Harare.
“If we had intensive care, we know it would be immediately full of critically ill patients. As it is, they just die.”
Herbert excerpts the report in his column at length and paints a picture as frightening as any international crisis on the world scene, most of which are covered daily, unlike Zimbabwe’s:
“This emergency is so grave that some entity needs to step in there and take over the health delivery system,” said Susannah Sirkin, the deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights.
I encourage readers to look at Herbert’s excellent piece and to go directly to the organization’s report itself at the link. If you are moved to do so, there are a number of ways to let the incoming Administration know that you share the group’s concern about the disaster in Zimbabwe. Here are some links that can be useful:
Obama Transition e-mail:
Mail:
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
White House Phone (after 12 PM 1/20):
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
White House e-mail (after 12 PM 1/20):
Mail to Secretary of State:
Secretary Hillary Clinton
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
e-mail to Secretary of State (after 12 PM 1/20):
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