HARARE, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- The health ministry of Zimbabwe said Wednesday it has managed to contain the cholera outbreak in the capital Harare that has so far killed 32 people and infected 7,000 others.
Deputy health minister John Mangwiro told a joint press conference that the number of recorded cases was declining from about 500 per day at peak to about 100 now.
The outbreak first broke out in Harare's high density suburbs of Glen View and Budiriro early this month but has spread to other parts of the country.
The outbreak is linked to use of contaminated water due to burst sewer pipes.
"We have managed to contain the outbreak for now due to our interventions. We are still recording a few cases but the curve is now going down which shows that our interventions are working," Mangwiro said.
Government declared the outbreak a state of emergency on Sept. 12 and has appealed for financial and non-financial assistance to fight the epidemic.
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said government had so far received 29 million dollars out of the 64 million dollars that it requires to respond to the epidemic in the immediate, medium and long-term.
Government had availed 15.7 million dollars out of the 29 million dollars raised so far while development partners and the private sector chipped in with the remainder, Ncube said.
"Out of the 29 million dollars, 25.4 million is for immediate use and the remainder will go towards medium and long-term issues. We have a funding gap of 35 million dollars that need to be raised," he said.
He thanked all those that have donated towards the cholera fight through the crowd funding initiative established by his ministry.
"We are very grateful for the donations and we hope that more assistance will continue to come," he said.
Outbreaks of water-borne diseases continue to recur in Zimbabwe's urban cities due to ageing water and sewer reticulation infrastructure.
Government has noted that redesigning and modernization of water and sewer infrastructure is the only long-term solution to stop the recurrence of the water-borne diseases.
The country's last major cholera outbreak occurred in 2008 when 4,000 people died from the disease. Enditem
