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A6 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 21 November 2023
A cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe is suspected of killing more than

150 and is leaving many terrified

By FARAI MUTSAKA tion has said that cholera
Associated Press cases in Africa are rising ex-
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) ponentially amid a global
— These days, Catherine surge. The African conti-
Mangosho locks her 3-year- nent accounted for 21% of
old grandson in the house cases and 80% of deaths
for hours on end in an at- across the globe from 2014
tempt to shield him from a to 2021, according to the
deadly cholera outbreak in WHO.
Zimbabwe. The outbreak in Zimbabwe
The virulent bacterial dis- is spreading from urban to
ease is killing the young rural areas and putting at
and the old in the southern risk over 10 million people,
African country, with health including more than 5 mil-
authorities reporting more lion children, said the Red
than 150 suspected deaths Cross Federation.
and over 8,000 suspected It said major causes were
cases since February. poor hygiene, but also a
Cholera has often broken lack of awareness and reli-
out across Zimbabwe in gious practices that include
recent years with deadly self-proclaimed prophets
consequences and has ordering sect members to
surged and spread again rely on prayer and items
over the last month, driven A cholera patient lies on a hospital bed, in Harare, Zimbabwe, Sunday Nov. 19, 2023. such as holy water rather
Associated Press
by the sometimes terrible than seek medical treat-
sanitation conditions in of sewage. The children Health Ministry has record- Federation of Red Cross ment.
poor, neglected townships pick it out and continue ed 8,087 suspected chol- and Red Crescent Societ- Cholera is now in all of the
and neighborhoods in the their game. era cases and 1,241 labo- ies. The group made an country’s 10 provinces,
capital, Harare, and else- “Those boys are playing ratory confirmed cases. It emergency appeal this Health Minister Douglas
where. with fire,” she said. “We said there have been 152 month. Mombeshora said at a clin-
Many like Mangosho, 50, buried a boy from this area suspected cholera deaths Cholera is a water-borne ic in the hotspot township
fear their family might be last week. He was playing and 51 laboratory con- disease caused by ingest- of Kuwadzana in Harare
next. soccer in the street just like firmed deaths. ing contaminated food or this weekend.
She points to a group of these boys one day. He fell The country of 15 million water and can kill within At Kuwadzana Polyclinic,
barefoot children play- sick overnight and died at people has been record- hours if left untreated, yet cholera patients lined up
ing street soccer near her the hospital. They said it ing more than 500 cases a it is usually easily treated by in a special tent set up for
house. The ball made from was cholera.” week since late October, rehydrating patients if cas- them and were given a cup
plastic bread wrappers fre- Since the start of the lat- the highest rate since Feb- es are caught in time. of rehydrating sugar and
quently plunges into ponds est outbreak, Zimbabwe’s ruary, said the International The World Health Organiza- salt solution on arrival.q

Experts say a wall that collapsed and killed 9 in the Dominican

Republic capital was poorly built

By MARTÍN ADAMES AL- design,” civil engineer Cris- wall collapsed.” Surveyors, said the force of when a portion of the wall
CÁNTARA tian Rojas told The Associat- Rojas, former president of the water in a flooded ad- that runs along the heav-
Associated Press ed Press. “No anchors were the Dominican College of jacent avenue, combined ily transited 27 of February
SANTO DOMINGO, Do- placed, and that is why the Engineers, Architects and with the type of wall that Avenue fell in one piece,
minican Republic (AP) — was built, led to the col- crushing cars and their oc-
A concrete wall along an lapse. cupants, authorities said.
avenue in the Dominican Dominican geologist Osiris Among the victims was
Republic’s capital that col- de Léon recalled that the Puerto Rico prosecutor
lapsed over the weekend first warnings about the wall Michael Orozco, his wife,
and killed nine people dur- were made more than two María Nereida Martínez,
ing heavy rains was poorly decades ago. He posted and his in-laws, according
designed, experts said a story from December to Javier Rivera, president
Monday. 1999 on X, formerly known of the island’s Association
The government of the Ca- as Twitter, in which El Siglo of Prosecutors. Martínez
ribbean country has come newspaper quoted the col- was pregnant.
under scrutiny, with experts lege recommending that “Comrade Orozco was liv-
saying they had warned the wall be rebuilt because ing a wonderful personal
more than 20 years ago it was cracked and “it can moment with his family,
about the wall’s failures fall and cause a tragic ac- and as a young, commit-
and lack of effort to fix Rescue teams work at the place where a wall collapsed at the cident.” ted lawyer, a promising fu-
them. entrance of a tunnel in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, The collapse occurred Sat- ture awaited him,” Rivera
Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023.
“It has weaknesses in the Associated Press urday in Santo Domingo said. q