With an outbreak of cholera taking hold in Harare, authorities have banned the sale of meat and fish, though experts say contaminated water supplies have more to do with the latest outbreak, which has claimed four lives, bringing the national total to 14.
Critics among medical experts also dispute these figures, saying more fatalities may have gone unreported as recordkeeping in many rural areas is patchy at best.
Trying to contain the outbreak, authorities have imposed a quarantine on the eastern districts of Buhera and Chikomba, where the outbreak began.
Harare City Council Acting Health Director Stanley Mungofa declined to comment.
But Hospital Doctors Association President Takunda Chinyoka said that while cholera can spread through food products, poor water quality and sanitation systems in the capital are more important factors in the spread of the gastrointestinal disease.
Dr. Chinyoka spoke with Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe.
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