Harare - Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic is surging ahead unchecked according to official figures released Sunday. They show the number of reported cases has almost doubled in the last week, to over 11,000. 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.
