Cargando…

Epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of typhoid fever in Jorhat town of Assam, India

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Typhoid fever is a global health problem and is also endemic in India. An outbreak of fever occurred in January 2014 in Jorhat Town in Assam, India. Here we report the results of an investigation done to find out the aetiology and source of the outbreak. METHODS: The aff...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Roy, Jashbeer Singh, Saikia, Lahari, Medhi, Mithu, Tassa, Dipak
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5345307/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28256469
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0971-5916.200902
_version_ 1782513691385659392
author Roy, Jashbeer Singh
Saikia, Lahari
Medhi, Mithu
Tassa, Dipak
author_facet Roy, Jashbeer Singh
Saikia, Lahari
Medhi, Mithu
Tassa, Dipak
author_sort Roy, Jashbeer Singh
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Typhoid fever is a global health problem and is also endemic in India. An outbreak of fever occurred in January 2014 in Jorhat Town in Assam, India. Here we report the results of an investigation done to find out the aetiology and source of the outbreak. METHODS: The affected areas were visited on January 23, 2014 by a team of Jorhat district Integrated Disease Surveillance Project personnel. A total of 13 blood samples from patients with fever as first symptom and six water samples were collected from the affected areas. The blood samples were cultured and isolates were identified using standard biochemical tests. Isolates were also tested for antimicrobial sensitivity. Widal test was performed on 10 of the 13 blood samples collected. Sanitary survey was carried out to find any leakage in the water supply and also the sewage system of the Jorhat town. RESULTS: Blood culture yielded Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi in six (46.15%) patients whereas Widal test was positive in 10 (76.9%) of 13 patients. Water culture showed presumptive coliform count of >180/100 ml in two out of the six samples tested. Salmonella Typhi was also isolated from water culture of these two samples. Sanitary survey carried out in the affected places showed that the water supply pipes of urban water supply were in close proximity to the sewage drainage system and there were few leakages. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: The outbreak occurred due to S. Typhi contaminating the water supply. Sanitation and immunization are the two most important components to be stressed to prevent such outbreaks.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5345307
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2016
publisher Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-53453072017-03-17 Epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of typhoid fever in Jorhat town of Assam, India Roy, Jashbeer Singh Saikia, Lahari Medhi, Mithu Tassa, Dipak Indian J Med Res Original Article BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Typhoid fever is a global health problem and is also endemic in India. An outbreak of fever occurred in January 2014 in Jorhat Town in Assam, India. Here we report the results of an investigation done to find out the aetiology and source of the outbreak. METHODS: The affected areas were visited on January 23, 2014 by a team of Jorhat district Integrated Disease Surveillance Project personnel. A total of 13 blood samples from patients with fever as first symptom and six water samples were collected from the affected areas. The blood samples were cultured and isolates were identified using standard biochemical tests. Isolates were also tested for antimicrobial sensitivity. Widal test was performed on 10 of the 13 blood samples collected. Sanitary survey was carried out to find any leakage in the water supply and also the sewage system of the Jorhat town. RESULTS: Blood culture yielded Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi in six (46.15%) patients whereas Widal test was positive in 10 (76.9%) of 13 patients. Water culture showed presumptive coliform count of >180/100 ml in two out of the six samples tested. Salmonella Typhi was also isolated from water culture of these two samples. Sanitary survey carried out in the affected places showed that the water supply pipes of urban water supply were in close proximity to the sewage drainage system and there were few leakages. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: The outbreak occurred due to S. Typhi contaminating the water supply. Sanitation and immunization are the two most important components to be stressed to prevent such outbreaks. Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd 2016-10 /pmc/articles/PMC5345307/ /pubmed/28256469 http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0971-5916.200902 Text en Copyright: © 2017 Indian Journal of Medical Research http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
spellingShingle Original Article
Roy, Jashbeer Singh
Saikia, Lahari
Medhi, Mithu
Tassa, Dipak
Epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of typhoid fever in Jorhat town of Assam, India
title Epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of typhoid fever in Jorhat town of Assam, India
title_full Epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of typhoid fever in Jorhat town of Assam, India
title_fullStr Epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of typhoid fever in Jorhat town of Assam, India
title_full_unstemmed Epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of typhoid fever in Jorhat town of Assam, India
title_short Epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of typhoid fever in Jorhat town of Assam, India
title_sort epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of typhoid fever in jorhat town of assam, india
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5345307/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28256469
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0971-5916.200902
work_keys_str_mv AT royjashbeersingh epidemiologicalinvestigationofanoutbreakoftyphoidfeverinjorhattownofassamindia
AT saikialahari epidemiologicalinvestigationofanoutbreakoftyphoidfeverinjorhattownofassamindia
AT medhimithu epidemiologicalinvestigationofanoutbreakoftyphoidfeverinjorhattownofassamindia
AT tassadipak epidemiologicalinvestigationofanoutbreakoftyphoidfeverinjorhattownofassamindia