Zimbabwe cholera outbreak killed nearly 500, WHO says
Last Updated: Tuesday, December 2, 2008 | 12:34 PM ET
CBC News
Zimbabwe's largest cholera outbreak in recent years has killed nearly 500 people, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
The WHO said the outbreak affected most regions of Zimbabwe and had a fatality rate of up to 30 per cent in some remote areas. The country's Ministry of Health reported 484 deaths from 11,735 cases since August.
Zimbabwe has had annual outbreaks of cholera for nearly 10 years, but the WHO said the current outbreak as been the most far reaching.
"The last large outbreak was in 1992 with 3,000 cases recorded," the WHO said in a report.
Cholera is often spread by untreated, contaminated water. The water delivery system in Harare and other cities has broken down, and the capital's utility ran out of chemicals for its treatment plant, state media reported.
"Most of the time the electricity is not available so we just use the water" without boiling it, Naison Chakwicha, a resident of Mabvuku suburb east of Harare, told APTV.
Cholera usually is usually deadly in less than one per cent of cases, the WHO said, and is easily treated with rehydration salts or an intravenous drip.
'Deteriorating humanitarian crisis'
An ongoing economic and political crisis is also gripping Zimbabwe, which faces crumbling infrastructure, and inflation officially at 231 million per cent.
The European Commission pledged to send aid for the humanitarian crisis.
"I'm shocked at the deteriorating humanitarian crisis," said European development commissioner Louis Michel, urging the government to allow full assistance in from abroad.
President Robert Mugabe had blamed the country's crumbling health system and economy on sanctions imposed by Western countries after Mugabe seized thousands of white-owned farms starting in 2000 that were redistributed to blacks.
During the cholera epidemic, Zimbabwe's government has welcomed international aid agencies including the UN Children's Fund, the World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders, which are providing emergency care and trying to provide safe water supplies.
About 5.5 million Zimbabweans, or half the population, face imminent starvation due to a food crisis that resulted from the farm distribution, according to the United Nations.
Since a power-sharing deal was signed between Mugabe and the opposition on Sept. 15, there have been disputes over cabinet posts.
With files from Reuters, Associated Press
