GENEVA - The cholera death toll in Zimbabwe has risen above 1,100, the United Nations said Thursday, as one expert warned that the country is ill-prepared to deal with outbreaks of other diseases.
A total of 1,111 cholera deaths were recorded by Wednesday, an increase of 133 in two days, the UN humanitarian office in Geneva said.
The latest figures, which are compiled by the World Health Organization, show that the number of cases has risen to 20,581 since the start of the cholera outbreak in August.
On Monday, health officials had tallied 18,413 cases and 978 deaths.
Aid workers have struggled to keep up with the spread of the disease, partly because reports of new cases have been slow to come in from rural Zimbabwe.
One WHO cholera expert, Dominique Legros, said a new command and control centre that opened this week will speed up reporting of outbreaks, but the lack of basic communications equipment in outlying areas remains a problem.
Legros warned that Zimbabwe's fragile health system means the country is ill-prepared at the moment to deal with other health emergencies.
WHO says cholera is spreading in Zimbabwe because of badly maintained sanitation systems, rampant inflation that has hit doctors and nurses, and a lack of clean drinking water.
Unlike many other African countries, Zimbabwe has modern laboratories and well-trained health workers, said Legros.
But according to WHO, many cannot survive on the meagre pay they receive, with some unable even to afford the cost of travelling to work.
