Sanday Chongo Kabange AfricaNews reporter in Lusaka, Zambia
Five people have been killed in Zimbabwe after a fresh wave of cholera broke out in some parts of that country. About a years ago, a wide spread cholera outbreak killed over 500 people after Robert Mugabe's administration failed to provide basic water and sanitation services.
Most of the people that died were women, children and the aged, who could not fend for themselves at the height of a protracted political and economic standoff between Mugabe’ ZANU PF and Morgan Tsivangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
A latest epidemiological survey conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) states that five people have died out of the 146 new cases of cholera recorded by WHO and that country’s Ministry of Health.
Available data say new cholera cases in the southern African state were detected in nine of the 56 districts, mostly the high density rural and semi-urban areas.
The data also shows a decline in the number of areas affected compared to the same time in 2008.
A widespread outbreak of diarrhoeal diseases caused the deaths of more than 4, 200 people from the 100,000 cases reported last year and early this year.
“146 cumulative cholera cases and five deaths were reported by 13th December 2009 to the World Health Organisation through the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare,” indicates the latest epidemiological report.
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