Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic is spiralling out of control, with health experts predicting up to 55,000 more infections in the next few months, bringing total cases to 115,000, Britain's Times newspaper reported on Friday.
Citing private predictions by the World Health Organisation, the Times said the deadliest cholera outbreak in Africa in 15 years was moving from towns to the countryside, helped by heavy rains and overstrained health and water systems.
Cholera has claimed more than 3,000 lives and infected some 60,000 people since August. The intestinal infection normally kills 1 percent of those affected but in Zimbabwe the rate is 5.2 percent, WHO says.
Aid agencies blame the higher toll on Zimbabwe's severe food shortages, which make malnourished victims more vulnerable to the disease's ravages.
WHO is forecasting that between 32,000 and 55,000 more cases will develop over the next few months until the rainy season ends, according to an internal memorandum obtained by the Times. Last week there were more than 8,500 new cases and 324 deaths, the paper said.
Aid organisations have stepped up efforts to combat the outbreak by opening treatment centres, delivering clean water and supplying thousands of hygiene kits like gloves and protective clothing.
Two of every three deaths are recorded outside of the country's 270 cholera treatment centres, meaning most victims die at home, mainly from sheer dehydration.
Cholera spreads through contaminated food and water. While it is normally both treatable and preventable, an economic crisis in Zimbabwe has caused the near-collapse of health services.
Soldiers use washbasins to irrigate a drought-hit wheat field on the outskirts of Xuchang, Henan province February 6, 2009.Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have ordered all-out efforts to ...
