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| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2012 | Volume
: 58
| Issue : 1 | Page : 14-18 |
An epidemic outbreak of Vibrio Cholerae El Tor 01 serotype ogawa biotype in a Lalpur town, Jamnagar, India
HD Shah1, VP Shah2, AN Desai3
1 Department of Community Medicine, MP Shah Medical College, Jamnagar, Gujarat, India
2 Department of Microbiology, MP Shah Medical College, Jamnagar, Gujarat, India
3 Department of Medicine, MP Shah Medical College, Jamnagar, Gujarat, India
Correspondence Address:
H D Shah
Department of Community Medicine, MP Shah Medical College, Jamnagar, Gujarat
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0022-3859.93247
Background: On December 19, 2010, 57 cases of gastroenteritis were reported in the community health center of Lalpur town. A rapid response team was sent to investigate the outbreak on December 21, 2010. Aim: To identify the source, to institute control and prevention measures. Materials and Methods: The outbreak was confirmed using the previous Integrated Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP) data. Detailed history was taken, line listing of patients and house-to-house investigations were done. Environmental investigation and laboratory investigation of stool samples were also done. As the study was conducted during emergency response to the outbreak and was designed to provide information to orient the public health response, ethical approval was not required. Remedial measures were implemented. Results: Three hundred and thirty cases were reported during December 19, 2010 to January 2, 2011 in Lalpur town of Jamnagar district. Nineteen patients were found to be positive for Vibrio Cholerae 01 serotype ogawa biotype out of 117 stool samples. The mean age of patients was 24.2319.01 years. The outbreak had 1.88% attack rate with no mortality and 59.1% cases had to be admitted. Investigations revealed that the epidemic was waterborne. Ten leakages were found in the pipelines of the affected areas of Lalpur town near two riverbanks. Conclusion: Among identified gaps, delays in the initiation of the investigation of the epidemic and repairing of leakages were most important. In India, waterborne epidemics are usual occurrences during the year. In this scenario, the village health and sanitation committee and water board should follow guidelines, and monitoring of water sources, proper sewage disposal and sanitation measures should be undertaken.
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