Tracking - Cholera in Zimbabwe, Hunger in Afghanistan

[Zimbabwe cholera victims seeks aid in a South Africa hospital - Footage from CBS]

Or, put another way, updates on two of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Cholera in Zimbabwe:

The cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe is growing worse - on Monday, Government authorities shut down the public water system in the capital city of Harare, for fear that contaminated water would help spread the disease.

Officials say that they have not been able to import the necessary chemicals to treat the water: "Our supplies ran out late Saturday, and we had not paid on time. We no longer have credit lines because of our bad record, so our suppliers in South Africa demand payment first."

A recent article by CNN described how people are trying to cope:

"Residents there were digging shallow holes in their yards in hopes of finding water. In some cases, nearby holes served as latrines. Other residents were getting water from polluted rivers."

All of the country's main public hospitals have closed, and even doctors and nurses are at risk.

According to a statement issued by the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC): "Some of the patients admitted at the [health] centers are health workers who contracted cholera due to lack of protective clothing."

The most recent figures from the UN are that 565 people had died of the disease as of Wednesday, with 12,546 cases reported nationwide.  Some estimate the death toll may be as high as 1,000 or even close to 3,000.

For a map of areas in Zimbabwe affected by cholera, see here.  The disease has also spread to the Limpopo River, which separates Zimbabwe from South Africa.

For more information about the overall situation in Zimbabwe - where malnutrition affects as many as 45% of the population - see here.

Hunger in Afghanistan threatens 1.6 million children:

As described in a previous post, millions of Afghans risk going hungry this winter.  According to a recent statement from the Afghan Ministry of Public Health:

"[F]ood shortages and health problems [threaten] 6.5 million populations who are currently living below the poverty line in Afghanistan. Out of this 6.5 million general population, 1.6 million are children under 5 yrs age and 625,000 are women of childbearing age, the most vulnerable age groups."

The World Food Program (WFP) currently provides food to over eight million Afghans.  The situation is complicated not only by brutal winter weather, but also increasing Taliban attacks against food convoys.  There have been at least twenty-six attacks on WFP food trucks so far this year, destroying 870 metric tons of food.

A recent AP article by Heidi Vogt provides an eye-witness account of how the food shortage is impacting poor families.  For instance:

"The farmer squats barefoot on packed earth in front of his two-room mud house. He has looked at his bags of wheat, he says, and counted the days.

Ghulam Sakhi, 50, says his family will run out of food in mid-January — only a third of the way through Afghanistan's frigid winter."