An outbreak of nosocomial cholera in a rural Bangladesh hospital.
At a time of year when Vibrio cholerae infection accounted for over 50% of admissions to a rural Bangladeshi diarrhoea treatment centre, 29% of 48 patients hospitalized with non-cholera diarrhoea developed nosocomial V. cholerae infection. During an investigation of the 8-week outbreak, only the severity of the non-cholera diarrhoea which prompted hospital admission emerged as an important risk factor for nosocomial infection; food, intravenous solutions, oral rehydration fluid, patient attendants and hospital personnel could not be implicated as transmission sources. Patients receiving antibiotics while hospitalized did not develop nosocomial infection. Antecedent non-cholera diarrhoea may represent an important risk factor in some cases of V. cholerae infection occurring in persons who reside in cholera-endemic areas where rates of non-cholera diarrhoea are also high.
D000328:Adult; D001459:Bangladesh; D002648:Child; D002771:Cholera / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000150:complications; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005260:Female; D006780:Hospitals, Rural; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012306:Risk