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| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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The seventh cholera pandemic spread from Sulawesi to other Indonesian islands and by the end of 1962 it had spread to the entire Southeast Asian archipelago. From 1963 to 1969 the pandemic spread to the Asian mainland and affected Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.2 The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which lie close to the route of this spread, were not affected. In 1992, V. cholerae serotype O139 caused large epidemics in India and Bangladesh.3 Although this epidemic spread to most parts of India, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands remained unaffected. Vibrio parahaemolyticus is frequently isolated from seawater and seafood samples in the islands.8 However, no case of diarrheal disease due to V. cholerae has been detected in a hospital-based surveillance started in 1994 in South Andaman.9
In OctoberNovember 2002, an outbreak of severe watery diarrhea appeared on three islands in the Nancowry group of islands, which are part of the Nicobar District of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in India. The outbreak spread to many villages on these three islands and affected a large number of tribal people. In this report, we present the epidemiologic features of this first recorded outbreak of cholera in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Case definition. A person reporting with watery diarrhea on or after October 5, 2002 was considered a suspected case of cholera. A suspected case whose stool samples/rectal swab yielded cultures of V. cholerae was considered a confirmed case of cholera.
Data sources. Patient records kept at the CHC in Kamorta were used as source of information about patients. A list of residents of the Nancowry Islands maintained by the Andaman and Nicobar Administration was used as the source of information about the population at risk. Patients admitted to the CHC after the beginning of the investigations and their relatives were interviewed. A house-to-house survey was conducted in one village, where the outbreak was continuing. Information about illness and water sources were collected from the residents of the village.
Clinical specimens and laboratory tests. Stool sample were collected from all the patients admitted to the CHC in Kamorta after the beginning of the investigations. When whole stool samples could not be obtained, rectal swabs were collected. Samples were collected from different water sources in the villages visited. Samples of seawater near the shore were also collected.
Stool samples/rectal swabs were processed for bacterial enteric pathogens following standard procedures at the temporary laboratory set up at the CHC in Kamorta. Isolated bacteria were serotyped using commercially available antisera. Samples were also sent to National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases in Kolkata for confirmation.
Initial control measures. All drinking water sources in all villages in Kamorta, Nancowry, and the Trinket Islands were super-chlorinated. Public awareness campaigns were initiated based at sub-centers located in various villages. The sub-center staffs were instructed to refer all cases of diarrhea to the Kamorta CHC. Intravenous fluids, oral rehydration solution, and essential drugs were stocked in the sub-centers. Pharmacists and auxiliary nurse midwives at the sub-centers were instructed to start early rehydration in all cases of diarrheal diseases. They were also instructed to provide intravenous fluids while referring cases to the CHC.
| RESULTS |
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The outbreak started at Tapong village on Nancowry Island on October 5, 2002. The index case was an 18-year-old woman. During the next few days, several persons in Tapong village were affected. By this time, awareness about early hospitalization was spread among the people and patients were reporting early. Thus, there were no additional fatalities in Tapong village. Eight cases occurred during the period October 57. After a lull of three days, an additional four cases occurred on October 11 and 12. This probably indicates secondary cases.
Figure 1
shows the dates of onset of outbreak in different villages in the three islands (Nancowry, Kamorta, and Trinket) The outbreak started at Tapong on October 5. Within the next few days, it spread to the villages on the northern part of Nancowry Island and then to Kamorta and other villages on the southern edge of Kamorta Island. The outbreak then spread northward on both the eastern and western costs of Kamorta Island. During this spread, villages in Trinket Island lying east of Kamorta were also affected. There were a few exceptions to the general pattern of spread. For example, Bunder Khadi village, which lies further north than the villages of Ramzo, Payuha, Munak, and Changuwa, was affected earlier. Apparently Kamorta was affected soon after the outbreak appeared in Tapong on October 5. All patients from Tapong were treated at Kamorta and it is possible that these patients were the source of infection in Kamorta. None of the villages south of Tapong, where the outbreak started, was affected.
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2 = 2.56, P = 0.109). There were three deaths in the hospital. An additional three persons, including the index cases, died in their homes. Thus, the case fatality ratio (CFR) was 1.3%. All deaths occurred among adults.
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| DISCUSSION |
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The present epidemic affected one of every eight persons in the tribal community inhabiting the three islands. The number of individuals with unapparent infection for every clinical case of cholera gravis was more for the El Tor biotype cholera than for the classic biotype cholera.10 Therefore, a significant proportion of the tribal population might have become infected during the outbreak. The attack rate was as high as 82% in some villages.
Age group-specific attack rates showed two peaks. The peak corresponding to the 01-year-old age group was perhaps due to the practice of early weaning among the Nicobarese since person-to-person contact spread virtually never occurs for cholera.1 The rest of the age group-specific attack rate trend with a peak attack rate among young adults is typical of an infectious disease that is newly introduced into a community. In spite of the aberrant peak corresponding to 01-year-old age group, the age group-specific attack pattern can be considered as an indication that the infection was new to the community. It has been reported that women of childbearing age exhibit a high incidence of cholera during these outbreaks.11 Although the attack rate among women 1545 years old was slightly higher than in the remaining population (13.7% versus 11.8%), the difference was not statistically significant.
The epidemic curve showed multiple peaks. The height of these peaks increased until the early part of the second week of November and then decreased rapidly. The repeated peaks represent spread of the outbreak to new areas. Even in individual villages, the outbreak showed multiple peaks, perhaps due to secondary cases. In some of the villages, the outbreak apparently reappeared after a gap greater than the incubation period. This could be either because of asymptomatic carriers in the hamlet contaminated water/food sources or because of the epidemic spreading to the hamlet a second time from other hamlets where the epidemic was continuing. The spread of the outbreak had a general northerly direction and none of the villages south of Tapong was affected. There is a possibility of seawater acting as a vehicle of transmission and the changes in water currents playing a role in the spread of the epidemic. It has been shown that V. cholerae El Tor can survive in untreated seawater for up to a week.12
Although the attack rate was high, the CFR was only 1.3%, which is similar to the average CFR reported for the entire world in 1993.13 Early rehydration at the sub-centers and use of intravenous fluids while transferring patients from the sub-centers to the CHC could have helped in reducing deaths. When use of health care by people is poor and rehydration at primary health care facilities is inadequate, case fatality a during cholera outbreak could be very high.14 Access of the population of most of the affected hamlets in the Nancowry Islands to the CHC in Kamorta, which is the only hospital in the areas with a doctor and facilities for inpatient treatment, was poor. In such situations, peripheral health units manned by paramedics can play an important role in reducing morbidity and mortality. During an outbreak of cholera in rural Bangladesh, intervention by a paramedical staff at a makeshift hospital reduced the mortality substantially.15
The tribal community in the Nancowry Islands lives in small hamlets along the shoreline. These hamlets are not connected to one another by roads, and in many of these the only access to transportation is by sea. However, the epidemic spread rapidly from Tapong, where it first appeared, to many hamlets in the three islands. The ability of the El Tor biotype of V. cholerae to spread widely in a short period has been documented in mainland India.16 The experience at Dering village, where the index case was a person who traveled to another village where the outbreak was continuing, indicates that the movement of people between villages had played a role in the spread of the outbreak. No single water source could be identified as the source of infection. Although the wells used for drinking water have concrete walls, parapet, and platforms around them, these were very shallow and there is a possibility of seepage from the surrounding stagnant water. A few latrines have been constructed at the hamlets, but most of the people defecate in the open.
No conclusive evidence on how the organism gained access to this hitherto unaffected population could be obtained. Several possibilities have been proposed. One possibility is that the organism was introduced to the marine environment as a result of discharge of effluents from ships that sail between Andaman and Nicobar and mainland India, as well as between the islands of the territory. Even ballast water carried by large ships may act as a vehicle of transmission of cholera across long distances.17 The large ships that sail often between Port Blair (the main town in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands) and Kolkata occasionally sail from Port Blair to the Nicobar group of islands. At Nancowry, these large ships cannot enter the port and thus stay anchored in the sea. This anchoring point is near Tapong village where the outbreak first appeared. The other possibilities include V. cholerae carriers among poachers from neighboring Southeast Asian countries, who often mingle with the local tribal population.
It appears that the seventh pandemic of cholera, more than 40 years after it originated on a nearby island, has now spread to the Nancowry group of islands. These islands have an estuarine environment and V. cholera are free-living bacterial flora in estuarine areas.2 Although environmental isolates of V. cholerae O1 outside the epidemic areas are almost always negative for cholera toxin (CT),2 it has been shown that CT-producing V. cholerae O1 can persist in the environment.18,19 The outbreak of cholera on the Nancowry Islands may have ended because the pool of susceptible people was depleted when a major proportion of the population got acquired subclinical or symptomatic infections. It is possible that the hardy V. cholera El Tor20 may persist in this estuarine environmental niche and may cause repeated outbreaks. Strengthened surveillance, preferably with an environmental surveillance component,21 is an immediate need to protect the tribal community from recurrent outbreaks.
Received February 19, 2004. Accepted for publication May 29, 2004.
Acknowledgments: We gratefully acknowledge the help and cooperation of the Nicobarese tribal chiefs of the various villages of Nancowry, Dr. Sher Singh (Chief Medical Officer, Community Health Centre, Kamorta), Justin Pereira (Assistant Commissioner, Nancowry), and the paramedical staff of the CHC of Kamorta and sub-centres at Tapong and Derring villages. We are also grateful to the Director and scientists of National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases in Kolkata for their help in laboratory confirmation of diagnosis, and Professor K. Ramachandran (Consultant to the Field Epidemiology Training Programme of the National Institute of Epidemiology [NIE]) and Dr. P. Manickam (Research Officer at the NIE) for useful suggestions in the preparation of this manuscript. The American Committee on Clinical Tropical Medicine and Travelers Health (ACCTMTH) assisted with publication expenses.
Authors addresses: Attayoor P. Sugunan, Asit R. Ghosh, and Subarna Roy, Regional Medical Research Centre (Indian Council of Medical Research), Post Bag No. 13, Port Blair 744 101, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India, Telephone: 91-3192-251158, Fax: 91-3192-251163, E-mails: pblsugunan{at}sancharnet.in and pblicmr{at}sancharnet.in. Mohan D. Gupte, National Institute of Epidemiology (Indian Council of Medical Research), Mayor V. Ramanathan Road, Chetput, Chennai, India, Telephone: 91-44-2836-1980, E-mail: nieicmr{at}vsnl.com. Subhash C. Sehgal, Regional Medical Research Centre (Indian Council of Medical Research), Post Bag No. 13, Port Blair 744 101, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India, Telephone: 91-3192-251043, Fax: 91-3192-251163, E-mail: pblicmr{at}sancharnet.in.
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