Zimbabwe runs out of medicine
Malnourished baby in a Harare hospital (Source: CIA Factbook).
At least 50 percent of medical drugs are out of stock in Zimbabwe's pharmacies in a country where more than 90 000 people are believed to be taking anti-retroviral, it has emerged.
The drug scarcity is a result of shortages of foreign currency, making life harder for struggling Zimbabweans. Against this medical horror is the undisputed fact that Zimbabwe once offered the most comprehensive medical service in Africa.
The few available drugs had shot up in price, putting them well out of the reach of most white-collar workers, the state-controlled Herald daily said.
Desperately-needed drugs for conditions like HIV, diabetes, high blood pressure and epilepsy were now found in only about one pharmacy in four, the paper reported after a snap survey.
"We have applied for foreign currency and we are waiting for allocations. Most pharmacies can no longer afford to import drugs, so the few that are still importing tend to be expensive," said Ishe Nkomo, the president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Zimbabwe.
The situation spelt bad news for the one in seven Zimbabweans estimated to be living with HIV. A month-long prescription of Stalenev 30, a common anti-retroviral drug, now costs Z$85m, more than six times a teacher's salary, the Herald said.
More than 90 000 Zimbabweans were believed to be taking anti-retrovirals. Medicines against malaria, another of Zimbabwe's biggest killers, are also proving hard to come by.
People are starving. The evidence is in the hospitals where tiny, wizened babies lie dying in their cots while their mothers look on helplessly.
One mother cradles a child who is losing her hair and her skin, a sign of the most advanced form of Kwashiorkor or vitamin deficiency.
Simple anti-mosquito repellents that were smeared over the body now cost an average of $20m per bottle where available.
Foreign currency inflows to Zimbabwe have dwindled over the past seven years. Critics of Mr Robert Mugabe’s regime point to plummeting agricultural receipts, especially of prime forex earner tobacco, following the launch of a controversial land reform programme before elections in 2000.
Reports of violent farm invasions had kept away foreign tourists. Many businesses had closed down and exporters had also scaled down production partly because of the unattractive rates at which they were forced to exchange their earnings.
Mugabe and his ministers blamed the forex crunch on Western sanctions. Zimbabwe's health sector had been hard hit by the economic crisis.
Doctors and nurses had streamed out of the country in the search for better pay. Reports from former colonial power Britain had revealed that at least 16 000 nurses from Zimbabwe had been granted working visas in the last eight years. Zim Diaspora.com - Sapa-dpa