Zimbabwean government officials met Monday with World Health Organization Assistant Director General for Health Action in Crisis Eric Laroche to discuss how to halt to the cholera epidemic that had claimed 589 lives as of Dec. 5, WHO sources said.
Nearly 14,000 cases had been reported as of late last week, the WHO said.
South African officials heading a delegation of officials from the Southern African Development Community traveled to Zimbabwe on Monday to assess the outbreak, which has spilled into South Africa and Botswana, with an eye to assembling an aid package.
The Southern African team was to consult with WHO officials in Zimbabwe before reporting to a meeting of SADC health ministers and water officials on Thursday.
World Health Organization Spokesman Paul Garwood said Dr. Laroche made an undertaking that the WHO would bolster its support to the country in response to the epidemic.