An outbreak of malaria in Zimbabwe has killed at least 500 people during the first four months this year, compared with the 300 who died of the disease throughout 2002, a health official said on Tuesday.
Stanley Midzi, director of the Disease and Control programme in the health ministry told the Chronicle daily that at least another 290 000 cases of the deadly disease had been recorded and treated in the southern African country.
Midzi said many of the victims were illicit gold-panners in the economically-depressed country, who work and sleep in the open bush, without any protection from mosquitoes who spread the disease.
Weather patterns this year also appear to have contributed to the high death toll.
The World Health Organisation in April warned that Zimbabwe and neighbouring Mozambique risked possible malaria outbreaks this year after cyclones in February and March created favourable mosquito-breeding conditions.
Some 1,9-million malaria cases are reported in southern Africa each year, resulting in 200 000-300 000 deaths.
Malaria, a scourge of the impoverished tropical regions, enlarges the spleen and destroys blood cells if not treated early enough.
It can cause anemia and water in the lungs, weaken the heart, inflame the stomach wall, induce diarrhea, affect the brain and eventually lead to death. – Sapa-AFP