GENEVA (AFP) — The death toll from Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic has reached 1,123, with suspected cases now at 20,896, the UN said Friday, as a health expert returning from the site said the situation was "worsening" in some places.
"We have a heterogeneous situation with places like suburbs of Harare where apparently the situation is getting better, but other places where the situation is worsening," World Health Organization epidemiologist Dominique Legros told journalists in Geneva.
The capital Harare continues to report the highest number of cases, with 224 people already killed by the disease and 9,072 thought to be suffering from it.
Figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Harare were unchanged, but the agency reported a new outbreak in Chegutu Urban district of Mashonaland East province, recording more than 378 suspected cases and 121 deaths.
Legros said the situation in hospitals was "worrying."
"I have seen empty hospitals, sort of ghost hospitals" empty of staff who have not turned up, he said.
Health workers have been unable to obtain their wages from banks due to a shortage of bank notes in the country reeling from runaway inflation, and as a result could not travel to work.
Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it has begun working with partners to disinfect homes of cholera patients in Harare.
"We are spraying the homes to break the transmission cycle of cholera bacteria. We want to make sure that the disease does not threaten those who are not infected," said Benjamin Jombe from Beatrice Infectious Diseases Hospital.
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