Date:07/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/07/stories/2009010759260300.htm

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Cholera: medical camp held

Staff Reporter

Health team visits Koppathuvila colony
Water samples collected for testing

Thiruvananthapuram: The district health administration has intensified preventive measures at Koppathuvila colony and Chittoor ward, following the death of a 75-year-old woman, Sarasamma in the colony following cholera.

A team of health officials visited the colony to assess the situation and to organise preventive measures. A medical camp was conducted in the colony in which 66 persons took part. All wells in the Chittoor ward were chlorinated. ORS (oral rehydration salts) depots were started in all colonies, sub centres and anganwadis in the ward. Health messages on diarrhoeal diseases were disseminated throughout the Peringammala panchayat, sources in the Health Department said.

Health officials said this was a stray case of cholera and they had not been able to isolate the source of infection.

No other family members in the deceased woman’s house or the neighbours have been affected and the possibility of contamination of well water was remote, given the terrain, they said.

The woman died two days ago and it was on Tuesday that the microbiology lab confirmed that they had isolated a case of cholera. Water samples from the wells in the locality were collected for testing.

No diarrhoeal cases were reported after that.