Health care is a human right.

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote a graphic article, published today, bluntly titled "Zimbabwe Is Dying." Not having much background on the subject of health care or the history and current situation in Zimbabwe, I can't offer much analysis, but the article is too important not to post. Herbert writes that Zimbabwe's life expectancy for men is now 37; for women it is 34--the lowest in the world for both men and women. There is an epidemic of cholera and people have contracted anthrax after eating meat from animals who have died of it. Pointing to the political and economic turmoil in Zimbabwe and Mugabe's brutality, Herbert writes that the health care system is basically falling apart.

The decline in health services over the past year has been staggering. An international team of doctors that conducted an “emergency assessment” of the state of medical care last month seemed stunned by the catastrophe they witnessed. The team was sponsored by Physicians for Human Rights. In their report, released this week, the doctors said:

“The collapse of Zimbabwe’s health system in 2008 is unprecedented in scale and scope. Public-sector hospitals have been shuttered since November 2008. The basic infrastructure for the maintenance of public health, particularly water and sanitation services, have abruptly deteriorated in the worsening political and economic climate.”

(Emphasis mine).

The deterioration of the health care system seems to be both a result of the economic/political crisis in Zimbabwe but with a collapsed infrastructure, the situation won't improve quickly or easily.

Organizations working on this issue include Physicians for Human Rights, Doctors Without Borders, and UNICEF.