HARARE, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Cholera cases keep on emerging in Zimbabwe with the latest incident leaving two people dead and 26 others infected in Mashonaland Central Province.
The sick are detained at Mt Darwin District Hospital, district nursing officer Anna Chinyemba told state media.
The Herald reported Wednesday that one person had died on Sunday while the another succumbed to the water-borne disease on Tuesday.
All the cases were reported in an artisanal mining area and health officials had since called for an urgent meeting in an effort to arrest an outbreak.
"We have a problem of cholera which broke out on Sunday. So far, we have 26 patients who are admitted at Mt Darwin District Hospital. We have two deaths so far," Chinyemba said.
"The affected people are artisanal miners from Mukaradzi mining area. We are trying all that we can to assist the affected. We are still investigating the source of the cholera. We have sent some samples to the laboratory to ascertain that it is cholera although we are treating it as such."
The World Health Organization has since announced that it is setting up a cholera treatment camp in Mt Darwin as reinforcement.
Mukaradzi Mine is 25 km from Mt Darwin and there are fears that the disease could spread to neighboring districts.
"We suspect that the outbreak could have been caused by poor sanitation since most of the mining activities taking place in the area are illegal," said Chinyemba.
At least 54 people died from cholera between September and October this year.
