Doctors say cholera outbreak

But BBMP health officials are not in agreement

Even as Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials continue to deny a cholera outbreak at a construction site of Sobha Ltd. at Balagere, doctors at St. John’s Hospital, where all the patients were treated, assert that it is an outbreak.

“The result of the test on samples of nine of the 23 patients treated at our hospital is positive for cholera. The condition of one patient, who was in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU), is now stable and he is recovering,” said Sanjiv Lewin, associate medical superintendent of the hospital.

Dr. Lewin added that the BBMP continues to claim that the water samples tested negative for

Vibro Cholerae, the bacterium that causes cholera. “However, this is not true, as the bacteria manifests in human faecal content after they consume contaminated water. Of the 10 stool samples tested, nine were positive for cholera,” he pointed out.

Meanwhile, BBMP’s health officials maintained that all the 1,300 labourers at the site, who were screened by them, have been given a clean bill of health. “We screened them for cholera, gastroenteritis, skin and respiratory infections. None of them showed any other symptoms,” they claimed.

The health camp that was conducted for three days ended on Friday. The health officials said that they would hold similar health camps in adjacent villages of Balagere and Panathur from Saturday. “This is to check the spread of infectious diseases, if any,” they added.