Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, declared his country's killer cholera outbreak under control yesterday, even as neighbouring South Africa designated one of its northern regions a disaster area due to the number of people crossing the border to seek treatment.
Nearly 800 Zimbabweans have died since August from cholera, which has spread rapidly and with unusually high fatality rates due to the country's crumbling water and health infrastructure.
"I am happy to say our doctors have been assisted by others, and the WHO [World Health Organisation], and they have now arrested cholera," Mugabe said in a televised speech yesterday.