Cholera outbreak hits Zimbabwe

The death toll from Zimbabwe's worst recorded cholera epidemic has risen to nearly 500, the World Health Organisation said yesterday, in a sign of the rapidly deepening crisis.

The spread of cholera, normally a preventable and treatable disease, highlights a collapse in the once relatively prosperous African nation, where President Robert Mugabe and the opposition are squabbling over how to implement a power-sharing agreement.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's party said talks on the unity government would resume in two weeks.

The WHO said most regions of Zimbabwe were reporting infections, with the fatality rate reaching up to 50 per cent in some areas. It reported 473 deaths and 11,700 infections.

"Cholera outbreaks in Zimbabwe have occurred annually since 1998, but previous epidemics never reached today's proportions. The last large outbreak was in 1992 with 3,000 cases recorded," the WHO said in a report.

Zimbabwean rights groups estimate that up to 1,000 people have died from the disease. The water delivery system has broken down in Harare and other cities, forcing residents to drink from contaminated wells and streams.

Hundreds of Zimbabweans are crossing the South African border each day to seek treatment, Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change said in a statement. It called on Mr Mugabe's government to declare a national disaster.

The European Commission said it would send aid. "I'm shocked at the deteriorating humanitarian crisis," said European development commissioner Louis Michel, urging the government to allow full assistance in from abroad.