Twelve cholera cases have been reported at Chibuwe Clinic near Chipinge farming town, more than 180 miles southeast of Harare, Zimbabwe's Health and Child Welfare Minister Henry Madzorera said on Tuesday.

The minister confirmed the outbreak, saying "Yes, there were reported cases of cholera at Chibuwe Clinic and all the patients were successfully treated and discharged. The situation is now under control."

Ten patients were successfully treated and discharged while two were being held for observation. No one died of the bacterial disease, The Herald said on Wednesday.

NGOs that visited Chibuwe Clinic last Friday feared that the disease might spread considering the current strike by doctors and the onset of the rainy season.

"The outbreak of cholera in Chibuwe has caused panic among community members and health personnel. The cases are sporadic as they are reported in different villages. Nurse-in-charge at Chibuwe Clinic fears that there is likely to be more cholera cases in the area," reads part of the alert sent out by the NGOs.

Just last week, UNICEF warned that a cholera outbreak similar to that which hit the country between August 2008 and July this year was imminent citing the onset of the rainy season.

Cholera is a water-borne bacterial disease, which is very difficult to control during the rainy season, especially where people use shallow wells as a source of drinking water.

UNICEF representative in Zimbabwe Peter Salama says another cholera outbreak in the country is almost inevitable because the conditions that led to last year's outbreak still existed.

"Urban municipal councils can't purchase the water treatment chemicals required to make the water safe for urban populations and that's been one of the real drivers of the cholera outbreak in recent years," said Salama.

"The other issue is the breakdown in piping -- piping of water, but also sewage piping, so much so that in some parts of the country open sewage is mixed with water, causing, of course, huge problems with diarrhoea disease."

Salama said UNICEF has begun stockpiling safe water containers and chlorine tablets in readiness for the envisaged outbreak.

While no figures are available on how many of last year's victims were children, Salama said, minors were generally more vulnerable to dehydration caused by the disease.

Last month, the government declared that a cholera outbreak that hit the country for the past nine months was over.

The last cholera case in the country was recorded on July 3 in Harare's Budiriro high-density suburb.

(Xinhua News Agency August 27, 2009)