COVID-19 Latest
World|life|September 13, 2018 / 10:30 AM
Zimbabwe declares state of emergency in cholera outbreak

AKIPRESS.COM - Zimbabwe's government has declared a state of emergency in the capital Harare after 20 people died of cholera, CNN reports.

At least 2000 cases have been recorded, according to the country's health minister Obediah Moyo, who warned the disease was spreading across Zimbabwe.

"We are declaring an emergency for Harare. This will enable us to contain the cholera, typhoid and whatever is going on, to get rid of the problem as quickly as possible," Moyo said Tuesday while visiting areas most affected by the outbreak in the city.

Poor waste disposal systems and broken sewers which may have contaminated water sources in Harare have been blamed for the disease outbreak, the health minister said.

Cholera is an acute diarrheal illness that kills thousands of people worldwide each year.

In 2008, more than 4,000 people were killed in one of the worst cholera outbreaks to have hit the country, according to the World Health Organization.

UNICEF said it was assisting Zimbabwe's government to deploy more resources to affected areas to combat the present outbreak.

"We have also alerted our regional offices and headquarters because we know this is a very serious issue, which will need quite huge investments to contain the outbreak. We are working very hard to help the government," UNICEF Representative in Zimbabwe Mohamed Ayoya said.

All rights reserved

© AKIpress News Agency - 2001-2024.

Republication of any material is prohibited without a written agreement with AKIpress News Agency.

Any citation must be accompanied by a hyperlink to akipress.com.

Our address:

299/5 Chingiz Aitmatov Prosp., Bishkek, the Kyrgyz Republic

e-mail: english@akipress.org, akipressenglish@gmail.com;

Follow us:

Log in


Forgot your password? - recover

Not registered yet? - sign-up

Sign-up

I have an account - log in

Password recovery

I have an account - log in