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Zimbabwe Cholera Outbreak Fact Sheet #12, FY 2009
USAID / US. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA)
March 19, 2009

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Key developments

Since the cholera outbreak began in August 2008, the disease has spread to 56 of Zimbabwe's 62 districts. As of March 17, nearly 91,200 reported cases of cholera had caused more than 4,000 deaths, according to the U.N. World Health Organization (WHO). The total caseload has now nearly equaled WHO's assessment of the outbreak's likeliest overall scope, currently estimated at 92,000 cases.

On March 17, WHO reported an overall case fatality rate (CFR) of 4.4 percent. Since the CFR peaked at 5.7 percent on January 21, WHO has recorded a steady decline in the CFR. WHO attributed the decline to improved case management and to social mobilization programs emphasizing early treatment, funded in part by USAID/OFDA.

From March 1 to 7, WHO reported a weekly institutional CFR—measuring deaths in health facilities, cholera treatment centers (CTCs), and cholera treatment units (CTUs)—of 0.8 percent, below relief agencies' emergency threshold of 1 percent. Until the reporting period of March 1 to 7, WHO had not recorded a weekly institutional CFR below 1 percent since the organization began tracking the outbreak's epidemiological data.

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