Cholera rages in Zimbabwe

As many as 1.4m people are at risk of contracting cholera in Zimbabwe, according to Medicins Sans Frontieres. The World Health Organisation says that by late last week about 300 people had died in hospitals from the disease, with many more thought to have died at home and 6,000 others infected.

The situation has been made worse by the heavy rains which have just started, with cholera being washed into the backyard drinking wells which are the main source of water for many of the country's urban poor.

At the weekend, Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, refused to issue former US president Jimmy Carter, former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan and Nelson Mandela's wife Graca Machel with visas to enter the country. In a show of disdain for the outside world, Mugabe blocked the three from making a fact-finding visit, claiming they were a "partisan group".

Last week, Gideon Gono, the Governor of the Central Bank, dismissed demands by health specialists for the cholera epidemic to be declared a national emergency.