8:17am UK, Thursday December 18, 2008

Cholera has infected 18,000 people in Zimbabwe with millions of pounds needed to stop the outbreak, a charity has warned.

Two Zimbabwean men rest in a cholera rehydration tent

Oxfam is asking the UK public and international donors for nearly £4m to provide treatment and supplies.

The disease is affecting nine out of the country’s ten provinces and is likely to spread further if, as expected, there are more heavy rains in the next month.

“The average Zimbabwean woman can only expect to live 33 years,” Oxfam representative Peter Mutoredzanwa said.

“Zimbabweans are no strangers to food shortages but we have now reached desperate levels.

“Some children only eat a meagre portion of food once every three days and people scavenge in rubbish dumps for anything they can eat.”

The charity has recently been forced to cut the amount of food rations it gives out after a fall in the amount of donations it receives.

Oxfam‘s Jane Cocking said: “The rapid deterioration of the situation in Zimbabwe makes this an extremely grave humanitarian crisis which could deteriorate even further in 2009.

“While the international community battles for a political solution in the country, millions of Zimbabweans are going hungry.

“Oxfam is able to get clean water and food through to people who need it most. We need to respond now, there is no time to lose.”

The charity is currently handing out water purification tablets and soap to 620,000 people as well as providing food rations for 250,000.

Latest figures from the United Nations show cholera, which is a waterborne disease, has infected 18,000 people and killed about 800 in Zimbabwe.

However, many more deaths and infections are believed to have gone unrecorded.