Zimbabwe Cholera Death Toll Rises to 1,111, UN Says

Source: Bloomberg

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The death toll from a cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe has risen to 1,111, while 20,581 people are suspected to have contracted the disease, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

“Major causes for the current outbreak continue to be a lack of clean drinking water and sanitation, weak health services” and an absence of medical staff, some of whom find it too expensive to travel to work, the agency said in an e-mailed statement from Geneva today.

About 6 million people, or half the population, are at risk of contracting cholera and health personnel fighting the epidemic are planning for a worst-case scenario of more than 60,000 cases, the UN office said.

Zimbabwe, ruled by President Robert Mugabe since 1980, is in its 10th year of a recession and its health, sewage and water systems have collapsed. According to the World Health Organization, 200 people in the southern African nation have contracted anthrax and 11 have died, with the consumption of contaminated meat identified as the most likely cause.

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