A cholera outbreak associated with drinking contaminated well water.

Reza Ranjbar (1) , Mohammad Rahbar (2) , Ali Naghoni (3) , Shohreh Farshad (4) , Amin Davari (1) , Fereshteh Shahcheraghi (5)

1 Molecular Biology Research Center
2 Department of Microbiology
3 Young Researchers Club, Karaj Branch
4 Professor Alborzi Clinical Microbiology Research Center
5 Institut Pasteur d'Iran

BACKGROUND: Cholera has been a significant public health challenge in many communities. An outbreak of acute diarrheal illness occurred among participants in a wedding ceremony in a village in Qazvin, Iran, in 2008. We conducted an epidemiological, environmental and microbiological investigation to determine the causative agent, source and extent of this outbreak. METHODS: Clinical and environmental samples were collected and analyzed for the presence of diarrhea-causing bacterial organisms, which included Vibrio cholera. The relationship between the strains was determined using enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus polymerase chain reaction (ERIC-PCR). RESULTS: The attack rate was 21.8%. Clinical and environmental samples were positive for V. cholerae serotype Inaba. All tested isolates had a similar ERIC-PCR pattern, which indicated that a single clone of V. cholerae was responsible for this outbreak. CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrated that well water was the source of this outbreak.

Keywords: cholera; outbreak; well water

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Microbiology and Parasitology; Bacteriology

Reza Ranjbar, Mohammad Rahbar, Ali Naghoni, Shohreh Farshad, Amin Davari, et al.. A cholera outbreak associated with drinking contaminated well water.. Archives of Iranian Medicine, 2011, 14 (5), pp.339-340. ⟨pasteur-00753276⟩