Peru in the time of cholera.

Julian Pettifer reports on the 1990-91 Peruvian cholera epidemic, which began in the port of Callao before spreading rapidly throughout Peru and thence into other neighbouring countries. The cholera epidemic is interpreted both as a symptom and a metaphor for Peru's progressive social and economic disintegration. Corruption and civil war, military dictatorship and democratic failure have combined to reduce a country already crippled by international debt to a state of anarchy from which many of the basic landmarks of law and order have disappeared. The programme traces the source of the epidemic, exposes the conditions which favoured its rapid spread and shows how primary health workers can do little more than return to basic principles of hygiene education in their efforts to minimise infection risks. The country's wealth remains in the hands of its political and financial elites while the impoverished majority lack the most basic amenities such as drainage systems and clean water.