Robert Mugabe, pictured at left and quoted here in December of 2008, claiming that the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe has been ‘arrested’.

In my mind, Mugabe must be more a fan of Kim Jong-Il than of Hu Jintao. Why? Because although both Jong-Il and Jintao host nations with tragically stringent levels of media censorship, denying in many cases the most basic human right of free speech, technology in Jong-Il’s respective nation simply doesn’t advance, period. Satellite imagery of North Korea during the night has looked nearly the same for the last 50 years. In China, clearly a leader in technology, the opposite is true.

That is Robert Mugabe’s problem: He simply cannot control what makes it out of Zimbabwe. 

Cholera may be on the decline in Zimbabwe, but it ceratinly wasn’t ‘arrested’ back in December – it was getting much worse. The work done to attempt to curb the epidemic is made available not from Zim officials or through a state-owned media outlet but because I can read about it from those on the ground, in Zimbabwe, on Twitter.

British Red Cross aid worker Ina Bluemel has started ‘tweeting’ from Zimbabwe. As part of efforts to combat the ongoing cholera outbreak in the country, which has infected more than 95,000 people and claimed over 4,000 lives, Ina is helping educate school children and students about the dangers of cholera, how they can keep themselves safe, and is keeping people around the world in touch with her work by ‘tweeting’ updates on her mobile phone, which are then posted on the British Red Cross twitter page at www.twitter.com/britishredcross.

“The work the Red Cross is doing can be lifesaving for people in the communities here, “ said Ina. “Cholera is an endemic disease in Zimbabwe, which means it is a virtually constant threat, and the current outbreak has been particularly severe. By strengthening the hygiene promotion activities and motivating Red Cross volunteers to continue their activities throughout the year, we are actively contributing to a healthier future for the communities we reach.”

And it may be working. Humanitarian agencies say cases of cholera in the country continue to slow down, attributing this to high awareness levels. 

Unicef communications officer Tsitsi Singizi stated over the past two months there has been an “encouraging” decline in cases of cholera in most parts of the country, adding that for the first time since the cholera epidemic broke out last August, on April 9 Zimbabwe did not record a cholera death.

“Whereas at the peak of the epidemic an average of 1 500 cases were recorded throughout the country on a daily basis, there has been a drastic reduction to around 100 cases a day. We find this decline to be very encouraging. The ideal situation, of course, would be that we don’t have a cholera crisis at all. But this development doesn’t mean all the hard work has to stop. If at all aid agencies must really step up efforts to bring cholera under control.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) last week said that as of April 14, a total of 96, 423 cases had been recorded since August 2008.

If cholera was ‘arrested’ back when Mugabe first claimed it was, the disease was released on bail to wreak havoc on the citizenry quicker than a Zanu-PF thug during their ‘democratic’ election. One hopes today that there is light at the end of the tunnel for the Zimbabwean cholera epidemic. Through advances in technology and those brave enough to utilize it, at least we can note its progression.