[Cholera in a district of Peru].
Taking to consideration the low report of cholera patients and with the main knowing the reality about the introduction of Vibrio cholerae (V. cholerae) in Peru, a sample of 101 cases with acute diarrheal disease (ADD) was taken at the Distrito Villa El Salvador. They were selected by a systematic randomized sampling defined for each health care unit in the District, according to the daily average occurrence of ADD cases attended a week before the beginning of the study. All of them took part in a epidemiological survey. A sample was taken by rectal swab in order to isolate V. cholerae. 53 positive cases were found (52.2% and a confidence interval from 42.29 to 62.5%) with significant differences (p < 0.01) between the frequency in adults (67.3%) and children (34.8%). V. cholerae was isolated only in 13 (61.9%) of the 21 cases who had contact with cholera patients, for a relative risk of 1.24 (0.83 < RR < 1.85). A high positivity was also found, 21 cases (72.4%) among those who had raw food. A significant difference (p < 0.01) was observed in connection with those who had cooked food. In the multivariate logistic regression analysis it was only found a significant relationship with age and with the ingestion of raw food as regards the occurrence of cholera.
Pérez Rodríguez
A E
AE
Instituto de Medicina Tropical Pedro Kourí.
Monté Boada
R
R
de la Vega Díaz
J E
JE
Molina
R
R
García Gómez
V
V
Arca González
J M
JM
D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002771:Cholera / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000635:transmission; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000382:microbiology; D003968:Diarrhea, Infantile / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016015:Logistic Models; D008875:Middle Aged; D010568:Peru / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D014734:Vibrio cholerae / Q000302:isolation & purification