800 fall ill with typhoid

An independent doctors’ group in Zimbabwe is reporting 800 cases of the bacterial disease typhoid.

No deaths have been reported in the past three weeks. The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights said the government lacked urgency in dealing with public health woes.

The group said that amid heavy rains, clean water supplies were still irregular or “completely absent” in the most impoverished townships in Harare. It said burst sewers were left unattended and meat and fish were sold on streets nearby.

A cholera outbreak in 2009 blamed on the collapse of water, sanitation and prevention services in Zimbabwe killed more than 4,000 people.