ANY NEW REPORTS ON THE CHOLIRA OUTBREAK IN ZIM AND HOW IS THIS GOING TO AFFECT GOING THERE FOR THE NEXT HUNTING SEASON ??

Hopefully it will have no effect on the coming hunting season.These are selflimiting epidemics.

Here is what CDC has to say about the disease

CDC on Cholera

You can also monitor the WHO site here.

WHO Site

Regards
Aziz

UK plotting against Zimbabwe: Mugabe spokesman

By MacDonald Dzirutwe


HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's government has accused former colonial ruler Britain of using a cholera epidemic to rally Western support for an invasion of the collapsing southern African nation, a state-run newspaper said on Sunday.


President Robert Mugabe is under mounting pressure from the international community, especially Western nations which accuse him of ruining the once prosperous country and exposing its people to famine and disease.


British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has branded Mugabe's government a "blood-stained regime" and said it was responsible for the cholera epidemic that has killed at least 575 people. The world must tell Mugabe "enough is enough," he said.


U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday the veteran leader's departure from office was long overdue. On Sunday she repeated this assessment and said she and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband had discussed by telephone what to do about it.


The growing Western criticism signaled a plot to oust Mugabe's government militarily, Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba said.


"I don't know what this mad prime minister (Brown) is talking about. He is asking for an invasion of Zimbabwe ... but he will come unstuck," Charamba told the state-controlled Sunday Mail.


The government often blames Britain and other Western nations for Zimbabwe's meltdown, saying sanctions against Mugabe and his inner circle have sabotaged the economy.


In Washington, Rice told ABC's "This Week" program that she was "appalled" at the international community's inability to deal with "tyrants" such as Mugabe.


"We are now seeing it, I think, in a very, very sad way in Zimbabwe, where Robert Mugabe should have gone a long time ago," Rice said. "And we can't seem to mobilize the international will to do it.


"I am going to continue to try to press in the international community. I even talked with my British colleague, David Miliband, just this morning about trying to see what we can do to get a renewed push to have this solved."


AFRICANS SPEAK OUT


African nations are also growing more uncomfortable with Mugabe, though some still view the 84-year-old as a hero of Africa's liberation era.


Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Sunday repeated a previous call for Mugabe to step down and urged the African Union to hold an emergency summit to formulate a resolution to send troops into Zimbabwe to deal with the crisis.


"We must not fail the dying people of Zimbabwe in this hour of their greatest need ... we must assist them to end this vile dictatorship, we must beg them not to despair," Odinga told a news conference in Nairobi.


Botswanan Foreign Minister Phandu Skelemani and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel peace laureate, have also called for Mugabe's removal.


"There is bitter disappointment in the current leadership," former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, a Ghanaian, said in a statement issued by the Elders, a group of prominent figures that includes ex-U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Tutu.


"This government has not demonstrated the ability to lead the country out of its current crisis," said Annan, who along with Carter and Graca Machel, the wife of Nelson Mandela, was denied entry to Zimbabwe last month on a humanitarian visit.

Archbishop of York John Sentamu agreed but went further, writing in Britain's Observer newspaper that "Mugabe and his henchmen" should face trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. "The time to remove them from power has come."

Douglas Alexander, Britain's international development minister, said on Sunday it was important Africans led the opposition to Mugabe's government. "Now is the time for Africa to stand up and be counted," he said.

Zimbabwe is on the verge of collapse. Food stocks are running out, unemployment is above 80 percent and prices double every 24 hours. The health system is in tatters, unable to treat many of those infected with cholera.

The epidemic has forced Zimbabwe to declare a national emergency and appeal for foreign help. Britain is among European nations that have promised aid. South Africa, Zimbabwe's richest neighbor, has also pledged aid.

The European Union is considering imposing new sanctions on Zimbabwe next week unless progress is made in breaking the deadlock between Mugabe and the opposition MDC over how to implement a power-sharing deal.

(Additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London, Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi and Susan Cornwell in Washington; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

As much as I hate to say it, Mugabe has no need to worry about Primr Minister Brown actually doing anything more than talking. - Brown certainly defies science by being able to walk upright without a spine, but nevertheless, he doesn't have one.

UNICEF fears 60,000 possible cholera cases in Zimbabwe
http://news.yahoo.com

Sun Dec 7, 9:51 am ET

LONDON (AFP) - The head of the UN Children's Fund in Zimbabwe told the BBC
on Sunday he feared a possible 60,000 cholera cases in the coming weeks.

UNICEF's chief in Harare, Roeland Monasch, said such a surge in infections
could bring the number of deaths to around 2,700.

Zimbabwe says nearly 600 people have already died from the disease but aid
agencies fear the toll could be higher.

Monasch told the BBC that aid agencies were doing everything possible to
bring down mortality rates, but warned that he believed infection rates
would rise sharply in next few weeks.

He said he was particularly concerned about the plight of children.

"Children in Zimbabwe are on the brink, and everyone's focus must now be on
their survival," he said.

UNICEF has launched an emergency response programme in Zimbabwe to focus on
providing basic services for children, including providing nutritional
supplements, and trying to increase access to safe water in the short term.

Zimbabwean state media on Sunday blamed the cholera outbreak on European
sanctions imposed on the regime of President Robert Mugabe.

If your worried about catching Cholera in Zim then don't go and the safari prices will fall and I'll go a year earlier then planned.....

The only risk of cholera is currently in urbanised areas where the water supply has failed and normal sanitation has broken down. Unless sanitation has drastically changed (I doubt it in the last 100 years) in non-urban areas then the hunting industry won't be affected.

just make sure that if you have to overnight before heading to camp that you don't shower( after all, water will invariably come in contact with you mouth and nose) or drink ANYTHING that isn't in a sealed bottle or can. for God's sake don't wash your hands with tap water and then touch your face around your mouth. then you will PROBABLY be safe. and travelers health insurance really isn't all that expensive.

BTW, cholera vaccine, if it's still offered, is notoriously ineffective.

Its still around. Oral dose. Mix powder with something ?

I was vacinated for cholera once, about 25 years ago. Made me sick as a dog for a few days. I, too, was told later that it was not particularly effective.

Very good advice from jdollar.

Exactly. It's the same advice your P/H and Outfitter will tell you.

How many white people and Hunting Industry people have been affected by this ? Does anyone know ?

quote:

Originally posted by Code4:

How many white people and Hunting Industry people have been affected by this ? Does anyone know ?

To my knowledge, zero. Certainly nobody here in the lowveld thus far.

Dave

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
just make sure that if you have to overnight before heading to camp that you don't shower( after all, water will invariably come in contact with you mouth and nose) or drink ANYTHING that isn't in a sealed bottle or can. for God's sake don't wash your hands with tap water and then touch your face around your mouth. then you will PROBABLY be safe. and travelers health insurance really isn't all that expensive.

when i posted this, it was a tongue in cheek response meant as a joke( although the advice is accurate). somehow the idea of totally avoiding tap water after 36 hours of travelling does not sound appealing. but i guess it beats cholera

Nobody on the northern side of Harare has caught it at all- still confined to the slums.

And Cholera is very easy to treat. Doxycycline is one of the recomended anti-biotics, so is ampicilan.

People are dying simply because they have no access to any health care and no access to any medication.

The only potential danger point for visitors is Beitbridge- it is a festering cess pool and there is no way to avoid touching something potentially contamonated. carry purel or germ X hand sanitizer!

quote:

The only potential danger point for visitors is Beitbridge- it is a festering cess pool and there is no way to avoid touching something potentially contamonated. carry purel or germ X hand sanitizer

or, if you're with Shakari, you could wash your hands with some of that Scotch he assures us that he enjoys.....it would be a higher use for it.

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
[or, if you're with Shakari, you could wash your hands with some of that Scotch he assures us that he enjoys.....it would be a higher use for it.

Shame on you for even suggesting such a cardinal sin! ......... to quote from Good Mornin' Vietnam....... You'll go to hell for that one!

I reckon the answer is a few antiseptic wipes for the hands and drink the whisky neat!

Capt.Bob,

I think you have your answer. Practically speaking their will be absolutely no impact whatsoever.

There may be an impact no doubt on those who are uninformed, misled or timid. These types of people are unlikely to leave home anyway.

i saw an internet report today that the zimbabwe government is blaming the "whites" (aka the west)for causing the chloera outbreak to cause embarrassment to the government.

Hey these guys are on to something; Al Gore created the Internet, George Bush created global warming, Al Gore's gonna fix it, we caused the recent Cholera outbreak in Zim....

....Damn we're powerful!!! "We got the power"!!!

Ok, ok....No Steve I haven't been into the Scotch "neat" (just yet that is)...

JW out

quote:

Originally posted by Jeff Wemmer:
Hey these guys are on to something; Al Gore created the Internet, George Bush created global warming, Al Gore's gonna fix it, we caused the recent Cholera outbreak in Zim....

....Damn we're powerful!!! "We got the power"!!!

Ok, ok....No Steve I haven't been into the Scotch "neat" (just yet that is)...

JW out

It has to be hard to maintain a productive poaching/war vet career when you are crapping your guts out. Too bad.