Since last October, when the disease broke out, some 1,500 people in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare have fallen victim to typhoid. The authorities blame restaurants and food vendors; the citizens blame the authorities.

By Nkosana Dlamini, Zimbabwe

Rosemary Mashadu is 21 years old. But her heavily dehydrated body makes her look like she’s 60. She can hardly speak and her eyes are motionless. And although she is awake, she hardly notices the presence of nurses tending to her.

The look of despair on her mother’s face tells it all. “My daughter was diagnosed with typhoid in October last year. Her condition is not improving. She has even been abandoned by her husband,” she says, fighting her tears.

No deaths so far
Rosemary is one of hundreds of typhoid patients who have sought treatment at a makeshift Harare healthcare facility. It opened only a couple of days ago to deal with the current typhoid outbreak in the Zimbabwean capital.

Authorities say 1,500 people in Harare have been treated for the disease since it broke out in October last year. Although the government admits the disease has now reached epidemic proportions, it still maintains no single death has been recorded.

Raw sewage
City administrators claim unlicensed restaurants and food vendors are helping spread the epidemic. But residents are angry at the city's failure to avert the crisis.

“Our community toilet hasn’t had running water for months," says Edwin Masawi, a resident of Harare’s Kuwadzana suburb, where the epidemic has been intense.
"Raw sewage is running through our residential yards, making our young kids vulnerable.”

Only half
Mfundo Mlilo, director of the Combined Harare Residents Association, blames the outbreak on the city’s poor water supply to households. “The council has no system to ration the water supply. Many suburbs have to make do without running water for months," he says.

Harare Town Clerk Tendai Mahachi says the city water facilities cannot meet the full demand of the nearly one million residents of greater Harare. “Our water processing plants can only supply half the amount needed,” he says.

Borehole water
Those who do have regular running water were in for a shock when the city administrators recently revealed that even the ‘treated’ water isn’t very safe for drinking.

Desperate residents have resorted to shallow wells and boreholes for alternative water sources. But these, too, are not safe. The health authorities say that raw sewage has contaminated the borehole water.

Spread
Dr Henry Madzorera, Zimbabwe’s health minister, warns against the spread of the disease. "The same poor water and sanitation conditions in Harare prevail in most of our urban areas and other areas of the country," he said at a recent press briefing.

Unperturbed
But despite the obvious signs of typhoid wrecking havoc in the city’s neighbourhoods, some people are unperturbed by the dangers of contracting the disease.

A middle-aged man buys a mango at a fruit and vegetable stall after swatting some green flies from the fruit. “Brother, I have become this old eating this fruit, but I have never contracted any typhoid,” he says defiantly, while munching the fruit hungrily without cleaning it.