Quoted in the state-controlled media, Health Minister David
Parirenyatwa said 11,071 cases had been reported since the epidemic
began seven weeks ago. That compares with 6,000 reported at this time
last week.
However, the death toll from the deadly diarrhoeal disease is rising
more slowly. There were 425 deaths reported November 28, up from 295
reported a week before that.
Harare, the capital, had the highest number of infections, with 152 deaths and 6,063 cases, according to Parirenyatwa.
Health experts said the epidemic is thriving due to poor health
conditions in Zimbabwe’s crowded, low-income urban areas. Many suffer
from broken-down water supplies, with raw sewage streaming through
people’s yards and metre-high ridges of rubbish lining the streets.
Experts point out that the official statistics only include cases where
the victim has received treatment at a hospital or clinic. Experts
estimate that the actual death toll might be five times as high if
people who died in their homes without treatment were factored into the
figures.
At Budiriro clinic, one of the capital’s two main treatment centres,
the number of cases has accelerated dramatically, from 150 per day
earlier in the week to 500 a day by week’s end, said one health worker,
who asked not to be named.
‘They are just not coping, it’s as if it’s a war zone,’ he said. ‘I was
there for 30 minutes and saw two bodies being taken out.’
Cholera had also broken out in a prison in the northern town of
Chinhoyi, the independent weekly Standard newspaper reported Sunday.
The institution is designed for 150 inmates but is holding 260. Health
officials in the area refused to comment, saying it was ‘a security
matter.’
Meanwhile, the central bank announced Sunday that it had increased the
maximum amount that people can withdraw from their bank accounts in a
week to 100 million Zimbabwean dollars (50 US dollars), from 2.5
million Zimbabwean dollars.
A critical shortage of cash is only part of the economic collapse
afflicting the country. Inflation is estimated to be in the
quadrillions. The Zimbabwean currency is worth a quadrillionth of its
value at the start of the year. There are severe shortages of basic
commodities.
Bank governor Gideon Gono was quoted in the state-run Sunday Mail
newspaper as saying that the new limit would reduce the huge queues
outside banks where people have been queuing all day to be able to draw
enough cash for half a loaf of bread.
The announcement came just before a mass action planned for Wednesday
by the Zimbabwe National Congress of Trade Unions, the national labour
movement, urging Zimbabweans to ‘go to your bank and demand your money.’
Last week President Robert Mugabe extended Gono’s term of office for
another five years. Economists say Gono’s stewardship has produced not
only world record inflation and devaluation, but the disappearance of
cheques and electronic transfers as forms of payment, and a central
bank classified by the International Monetary Fund as bankrupt.
It was also revealed earlier this month that the bank has allegedly
illegally appropriated 7 million US dollars of aid agency cash meant
for AIDS victims.