Background

The cholera crisis that swept across  Zimbabwe through the first half of 2009 is now under control. One of the world’s largest recorded outbreaks, it sickened 98,592 people and left 4,288 dead before ending in July. The disaster struck as the country struggled with a raft of problems including food shortages, hyperinflation, and a collapse of community water and sanitation services.

In a widespread response, Oxfam reached more than two million people with a range of assistance that included repairing hundreds of deep community wells known as boreholes, a public health education campaign that provided critical information on how to stem the spread of the disease, and the distribution of oral rehydration salts, soap, disinfectant, water purification tablets, and buckets for toting water.

Cholera, which can cause acute diarrhea and death if medical attention is not quickly provided, is contracted by drinking water or eating food contaminated with the cholera bacterium. The illness can spread fast through communities where sewage and drinking water aren't properly treated. During severe outbreaks, the source of the contamination is often the feces of people who have already been infected.

In Zimbabwe, the disease surged as a result of the decay of municipal sewage treatment systems, poor maintenance of water supplies, and a lack of the most basic tools for good hygiene, such as soap. If symptoms are addressed quickly, cholera can be successfully treated by replacing the fluids and salt patients lose. Oral rehydration solution—a combination of sugar and salt mixed with water—is a key remedy. In severe cases, patients may need to have lost fluid replaced intravenously. But years of underinvestment in public services meant that health care provision in Zimbabwe was on the verge of collapse when the outbreak erupted.