urban areas, which hindered early detection and isolation of cholera cases. a news commentator writing for the lancet, andrew meldrum, said that president mugabe's youth militia threatened health professionals that provided medical treatment to political opponents. he said that, combined with decreasing education standards, low pay, and a shortage of medical supplies like latex gloves, this led doctors to leave zimbabwe at an alarming rate. according to douglas gwatidzo, the chairman of the zimbabwe doctors for human rights group, zimbabwe had only one doctor assigned to a group of 12,000 citizens. doctors in zimbabwe fill only 25% of the medical posts available, and even fewer specialist positions are taken. according to meldrum, this poses serious challenges to health care for diseases like hiv/aids and cholera. similarly, the effects of cholera are exacerbated without proper nutrition, and zimbabwe has faced food shortages for the last several years. cholera and malnutrition keep children out of school – a serious social consequence of the outbreak. rachel pound, the director of save the children in zimbabwe, said that attending school may be dangerous in zimbabwe, instead of providing a ladder for self-improvement. she noted that "sanitation is now so bad in schools that they may become a breeding ground for infection", rather than a place of valuable education. according to meldrum, zimbabwe's high inflation left the country with a lack of financial resources, resulting in a shortage of ambulances and pharmaceutical drugs. according to eric pruyt of the delft university of technology in the netherlands, this was exacerbated by a shortage of international aid, as zimbabwe's government didn't acknowledge the epidemic and accept aid until the disease was widespread. it was not contained or prevented from spreading. until 2008, the government insisted that there was no cholera in zimbabwe, and pruyt says the u.n. did not provide the country with safe drinking water until after the crisis started. meldrum says that, during zimbabwe's continuing hiv/aids dilemma, some major international donors did not give much money because they believed it would help president mugabe stay in power, which they did not want. as the outbreak and health crisis grew worse, american and british leaders cited the crisis as further proof that it was, in their view, "well past time for (president) robert mugabe to leave" and that zimbabwe had become a failed state. marian tupy of the cato institute said that the crisis began in 2005 when the government took over water treatment facilities but without sufficient funding to maintain purification processes. the transfer of water treatment from local government to the zimbabwe national water authority was criticized by innocent nhapi of the national university of rwanda on the basis of capacity and funding of the authority. the lack of funding for water treatment chemicals, maintenance and staff salaries was cited by colwell of the baker institute as a major cause of the epidemic. according to colwell, before funds were diverted from the plants to other uses, there were only sixty-five cases and four deaths from cholera in zimbabwe. according to an editorial by daniel j ncayiyana in the south african medical journal, president mugabe blamed the u.s. and the u.k. for the cholera outbreak, saying that they sent the disease so that they have a reason to credibly remove him from the presidency. one zimbabwean citizen was shown with a sign that blamed uk prime minister gordan brown for the disease; the sign expressed the horrors of "brown's cholera". according to a news report in al jazeera, the zimbabwe government and state media blamed the outbreak on european and american sanctions and a reuters report said it accused britain of plotting an invasion under the cover of the outbreak. information minister sikhanyiso ndlovu blamed the cholera deaths on western sanctions, saying "the cholera issue has been used to drive a wedge among us". on 12 december, ndlovu repeated his accusation, and claimed that the cholera outbreak was actually a "serious biological-chemical weapon" attack by the united kingdom, which ndlovu asserted was trying to commit genocide. said ndlovu: cholera is a calculated, racist, terrorist attack on zimbabwe by the unrepentant former colonial power, which has enlisted support from its american and western allies so that they can invade the country. in the meantime, a senior zanu-pf official argued that the government and party leadership was more focussed on the forthcoming zanu-pf conference than on the current crisis. on 11 december 2008, president robert mugabe made a speech screened on national television in which he said: i am happy to say our doctors have been assisted by others and who (the world health organization)... so now that there is no cholera... because of cholera, mr brown wants a military intervention... bush wants military intervention because of cholera... there is no cause for war any more. the cholera cause doesn't exist any more. reports from the who contradicted mugabe's view and indicated a growing death toll. according to the who, as of 8 december nearly 800 people had died of cholera and more than 16,000 cases were being treated. later that same day, zimbabwean visas were denied to six french aid workers, including three crisis management specialists, two epidemiologists and a water treatment expert. britain's africa minister, mark malloch-brown, dismissed mugabe's claim that the zimbabwe cholera crisis is over, commenting as follows: i don't know what world he is living in. there is a raging humanitarian crisis in zimbabwe as well as an economic crisis and still there is no representative government able to lead the country out of this disaster. the french foreign ministry and usaid also contradicted mugabe's statements and called on him to allow aid to reach the people in need.