Nineteen people have contracted cholera in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, in the first outbreak of the often-deadly disease in the city in a year, Zimbabwe state radio reported yesterday.The 19 are from the impoverished eastern townships of Mabvuku and Tafara, where residents have gone without clean running water for days and have been using unprotected wells, the report said.
Health officials have been sent to the area to hand out water purification tablets. Zimbabwean Health and Child Welfare Minister David Parirenyatwa said the situation was "under control," the report added.