Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Cholera strikes in 11 districts of Odisha

Times of India, Aug 31, 2012
Ashok Pradhan,

BHUBANESWAR: Cholera, which had claimed 183 lives and affected over 2000 in KBK region in 2010, has again emerged as a major headache for the state government. With samples from Dasmantpur block of Koraput testing positive for Vibrio cholerae on Thursday, the total number of districts where the virus was found in August alone went up to nine, government sources said.
Samples from total 11 of the 30 districts have tested positive so far this season (June-August). The state has recorded 20 deaths from various diarrhoeal diseases, including cholera, during the same period.
Though often associated with poor hygiene and lifestyle of people in remote tribal districts, Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC) has confirmed the bacteria in rectal swabs of patients from Narasinghpur area of Cuttack district besides in Dhenkanal. Narasinghpur had reported around dozen cases of loose motion and vomiting, some of whose samples were tested and were found positive for cholera. There was, however, no casualty from the area.
Among other districts where Vibrio cholerae were found in stool samples this month included Angul, Sonepur, Nuapada, Rayagada, Kalahandi, Nabarangpur.
The bacteria were found most widespread in Rayagada district this month with stool samples of people from Kasipur, Kalyansinghpur blocks besides water samples from Kolnada and Bisamkatak areas found containing the bug. Similarly, in Kadampur, Kalampur and Jaypatna areas of Kalahandi district and Chandahandi of Nabrangpur, rectal samples from some patients were confirmed for Vibrio cholerae.
Samples from Balangir and Puri districts had confirmed cholera in July though positive samples in Puri are not unusual because the area is endemic to cholera. A few samples from Kalahandi and Nupada had tested positive in June.
Government authorities articulated there is no reason to worry at all as most of these cases were detected during routine surveillance without any outbreak like situation. "Finding cholera bacterium is not unusual or unexpected in water or stool samples during surveillance. However, there is no outbreak like situation anywhere," said director public health services (DPHS) Dr Prasad Kumar Patnaik.
Patnaik said the government has been attending to all diarrhoeal cases irrespective of whether those were due to cholera by sanitizing the drinking water sources and undertaking public awareness drives. "The situation is far better compared to previous years," he added.
RMRC sources said the strain of vibrio cholerae has been identified as O1 Ogava everywhere in the state while the scientists are doing research to nail the exact serotype. The bacterium is sensitive to tetracycline, ciprofloxacin and arithromycine medicines. The saving grace so far is that there is no human to human transmission this year, which result in higher deaths, scientists said.

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