Zimbabwe in huge cholera vaccination drive after 49 deaths

Zimbabwe has embarked on a massive vaccination drive as it battles a cholera outbreak that has killed at least 49 people.

Health Minister Obadiah Moyo says the vaccination campaign, with help from the World Health Organization, is targeting more than 500 000 people between Wednesday and Sunday. Moyo says close to 1 million more people will be vaccinated starting next week.

The government says the outbreak has sickened more than 9 000 people mostly in the capital, Harare, since September.

Many fear a repeat of 2008 when cholera killed more than 4 000 people at the height of the southern African country's economic and political problems.

Water and sewer infrastructure has collapsed, with raw sewage flowing freely in some Harare streets.

Recently elected President Emmerson Mnangagwa has vowed to fight the "medieval" disease.