 The case fatality rate for the outbreak was higher than expected for such outbreaks, although it began declining by January 2009.Official estimates of fatalities have run from 484 to 800, since the outbreak in August 2008, with an upper estimate of 3,000 from an anonymous senior official in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare.Fatality rates varied from 2.5% in Harare to 18% in Chitungwiza.