With a downward trend in new cholera cases in Zimbabwe well established, health authorities are hoping to bring the epidemic to an end. But the eight-month-old epidemic continues to claim lives - 16 in the most recent update Sunday from the World Health Organization.
Through March 29 the death toll was 4,111 from a total of 93,849 cases since August 2008.
WHO spokesman Paul Garwood told reporter Marvellous Mhlanga-Nyahuye of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the country’s capacity to respond to the epidemic must be further reinforced in order to maintain the downtrend in cases and deaths.
Meanwhile, villagers in Matabeleland South province have taken steps to halt the spread of cholera by building better pit latrines commonly known as Blair toilets, with assistance from the international development organization Oxfam, as Martin Ngwenya reported.
