AKIPRESS.COM - The rate of new cholera infections has decreased in Zimbabwe after a flurry of public warnings to wash hands and radio jingles warning the public of its symptoms, Aljazeera reports.

Zimbabwe, though, remains on high alert with the death toll rising to at least 45 in the last three weeks.

Thousands in the capital Harare have been infected by the water-borne disease, but the crisis is an all-too-familiar reality among many others in the Southern African nation.

In a bid to contain the contagious disease, police have tried to clear Harare's streets of vendors selling fresh fruit and vegetables. But the daring and desperate ones defy the orders, despite facing the wrath of law enforcers.

Sekai Tawenga, 43, a vendor selling cabbages, potatoes and bananas, sits directly across from the gates of the Glenview PolyClinic in a neighbourhood that has been the epicentre of the outbreak.

The clinic is a cholera treatment site set up by the World Health Organization (WHO) and local authorities. Tawenga is one of the few vendors who stayed put and continued selling produce, despite the public health restriction on fresh food vendors.

She told Al Jazeera the need to feed her family will not move her from her stall. The risk of starvation, she said, was greater than being harassed by police.

"I'm right here on the doorstep of cholera, but I'm going nowhere. My troubles are greater than this disease and even if the police come to remove me, I'll come back because I need to survive. Nobody knows the hardships I face," said Tawenga.