Cholera spreads across Zimbabwe

Those people who can find them can collect water from wells

Others are resorting to drinking dirty water from puddles

The Musina hospital is taking in many new cholera patients

Cholera has killed nearly 500 people in Zimbabwe in recent months.

The United Nations says that since August, nearly 12,000 cases have been reported.

The spread of the disease has been helped along by the collapse of Zimbabwe's health system and its sanitation infrastructure too.

Much of the capital, Harare, is now without water because of a shortage of purification chemicals.

The situation is causing people to resort to desperate measures.

The World Today spoke to a white Zimbabwean who teaches at an international school in Harare.

Listen Listen to her (3 mins 52 secs)

Many people are driven to leaving the country, looking for respite from disease, hunger, economic collapse and political upheaval. Some of them carry cholera with them.

The BBC's Peter Biles is at a hospital in the South African town of Musina, close to the border with Zimbabwe.

Listen Listen to his report (6 mins 13 secs)

First broadcast 2 December 2008

To see a map of the most affected areas, click here.