Cholera on the move

Cholera on the move

Chicago Tribune: The World Health Organization recently announced that more than 80,000 people have been infected with cholera in Zimbabwe. The 6-month-old outbreak there has claimed 3,700 lives.

People in the African nation don’t have clean water, medical care or food. “We have seen people so desperate for food they are actually disappointed when they find out they are not HIV-positive because they are not eligible for food aid,” said Christophe Fournier, International Council President for Doctors Without Borders.

The government of Zimbabwe continues to resist aid efforts — one reason 3 million people have fled their homeland in the last three years. More will follow, and most of them will head to neighboring South Africa.

Spreading threat

As they flee Zimbabwe, they increase the chances that a national cholera emergency will turn into a regional disaster.

Instead of providing refuge to Zimbabweans, South Africa has aggressively deported them to their home country. It classifies the arriving Zimbabweans not as refugees, but as “voluntary economic migrants.” Some 17,000 Zimbabweans are deported each month by South African authorities.

Despite all the difficulties Zimbabwean refugees ace, they keep streaming to South Africa. Once they get there, many go underground to avoid deportation. That creates a grave risk of silently, but quickly, spreading cholera.

South Africa’s efforts to prop up Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe has been disgraceful enough. Its treatment of Zimbabwean refugees now piles one shameful act on another. If South Africa doesn’t provide legal refugee status, shelter and medical care to refugees, it will promote a grave health problem — and a risk to its own people.