WHO - Expect 55,000 More Cholera Cases As Epidemic Moves From Country To Cities

[hatrack]

The toll from Zimbabwe’s cholera epidemic will almost double in the next few months as up to 55,000 more people contract the disease, according to private predictions by the World Health Organisation.

Last weekend the number of infections swept past 60,000, the worst case predicted by the United Nations in early December. The Times has now obtained a WHO memorandum expecting between 32,000 and 55,000 more cases.

The epidemic has already claimed 3,300 lives – greater than the toll for the whole of Africa in most years – and is one of the worst recorded. Last week there were 8,578 new cases and 324 deaths.

“We are at our wits’ end,” one senior aid worker confided. “We are not yet winning the battle,” admitted Custodia Mandlhate, the WHO representative in Zimbabwe. Another Western health official said that the epidemic would not end until May, when the rains cease and it can run its natural course.

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article5671866.ece