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They are not confirmed cases of cholera, says BBMP

BANGALORE: The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is not prepared to accept that there are sporadic instances of cholera in Bangalore even though the Epidemic Diseases (ED) Hospital says it admitted four persons from the city suffering from the disease for treatment on Sunday last.

Moreover, the Bowring and Lady Curzon and the St. Philomena hospitals have so far referred 35 suspected cholera cases to the ED Hospital. However, the latter has to wait for results of the stool test to be conducted by the Public Health Institute (PHI) before making any announcement.

For the BBMP Health Department, the four cases are only “presumptive cases of cholera” and not “confirmed cases” as it does not consider the results of “hanging-drop test” as the final test to detect cholera.

According to L.T. Gayathri, Chief Health Officer of the BBMP, the existence of cholera can be established only after conducting a “culture test” which is known as the confirmatory test for detecting Vibrio cholerae, the bacteria causing the disease.

“Until the results of the confirmatory test are known we cannot conclude that there is cholera. Moreover, treatment for cholera and gastroenteritis is almost similar and there is no need to panic as we have taken sufficient precautions,” Dr. Gayathri said.

On the other hand, V. Rajeev, Medical Officer of the ED Hospital, told The Hindu that in only 20 per cent of cases the outcome of the “hanging-drop test” could be proved wrong in the “culture test”. “Though ‘culture test’ is conducted subsequent to the “hanging-drop test” by the Public Health Institute, we usually treat a person as cholera patient when he or she tests positive for Vibrio cholerae bacteria in the ‘hanging-drop test’,” said Dr. Rajeev.

He also clarified that it was not an outbreak but only sporadic instances of cholera. Only five of the 84 stool samples tested positive. The five cholera patients have been identified as Mohisina Banu (30) of Neelasandra, Hammulu (18) of Doorvaninagar and Noorjahan (30) of Modi Road in Cox Town, Bhadramma of Old Madras Road, all in Bangalore city and, Lakshmi (2) of Hoskote in Bangalore Rural district. They were admitted to the hospital on Sunday last.

All are recovering in hospital. However, the possibility of the presence of the Vibrio cholerae bacteria in several persons suffering from gastroenteritis cannot be ruled out, and this is known as sub-clinical status, he said.

Referring to gastroenteritis cases, he said that so far the ED Hospital has treated 274 patients — 134 in-patients — for gastroenteritis since January 25. The BBMP, on Thursday, detected 90 fresh cases of gastroenteritis from Bharatinagar area of which 85 were treated in the BBMP area hospital and the rest in ED Hospital.

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