Signs of recovery appear in Zimbabwe hospitals

By MacDonald Dzirutwe

HARARE (Reuters) - The odours of death and decay are gone from the corridors of Zimbabwe's biggest hospital, replaced by the smells of medicines and food for the patients who are once again coming for treatment.

Nowhere is the change in Zimbabwe more evident than in the hospitals that just months ago failed so woefully to cope with a cholera epidemic that killed more than 4,000 people.

Since a new power-sharing government between President Robert Mugabe and old rival Morgan Tsvangirai started work in February, doctors and nurses are being paid again and have returned to Harare's Parirenyatwa General Hospital.

UNICEF has been helping to pay allowances to some doctors and nurses while the government is now paying them $100 a month like other state employees.

Zimbabwe's stocks of drugs have risen from 10 percent of what they should be to 42 percent and are set to reach 60 percent in August, according to the Health Ministry.

"Things seem a bit better compared to when I was here in January but drugs are still short," said Emelda Mwaera, 61 and diabetic, as she was wheeled by a nurse from the hospital to a car.

In December, she lost her youngest son to cholera because nobody could care for him at a clinic in Budiriro township.

But despite the evident improvements in the hospitals, Zimbabwe's full recovery from a decade of decline will take much longer and there is no sign yet of the big inflows of money needed from Western donors who demand greater reform.