Zimbabwe will likely face another cholera epidemic come the rainy season, a Red Cross official warned Thursday, noting that no improvements have been made to the country's dilapidated water and sanitation systems, according to dpa. The official was commenting after the Ministry of Health in Harare announced that a cholera outbreak, which was ongoing since the rainy seasons in late 2008, had ended. "Our concern is that the issues that drove the outbreak - the worst outbreak in 15 years in Africa - have not been addressed in any way," said Matthew Cochrane with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Speaking with the German Press Agency dpa by telephone, he warned that the "ground is ripe for future outbreaks." Since the end of last year, the disease affected almost 100,000 people and killed over 4,000, medical officials said. An appeal by the Red Cross for 3.5 million dollars to dig clean water holes and improve basic infrastructure gathered less than 100,000 dollars in donations, the organization said. Given that cholera was now endemic to Zimbabwe, and noting the failing infrastructure, Cochrane said there was "no reason to believe we won't be back to where we were a few months ago again," when the rains come in a couple of months.
