A 60-year-old woman, a resident of Ossankulam in Chetpet died on Friday at the Government Kilpauk Hospital following complications resulting from diarrhoea. A child from Bhoobathy Nagar, located nearby, which was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday, had tested positive for cholera and was shifted to the Communicable Diseases Hospital. Three other children were also admitted to the CDH as paediatricians in KMCH suspected them to be suffering from cholera. Three more children have been admitted to the hospital's isolation ward and test results are awaited.
"The children were shifted to CDH after they tested positive for cholera. We took the stool sample of the children and sent it for test. We found that one child's sample had tested positive and since the others also showed similar symptoms we sent them to CDH. The child who was admitted to the CDH on Wednesday is doing well," said Narayana Babu, head of Paediatrics Department, KMC. The other three children are under observation at the hospital and their stools have been sent for confirmatory test.
Dr. Narayana Babu said that when the stool is the colour of rice water and foul smell, like that of fish emanates, cholera should be suspected. In all the four children the stools were the colour of rice water.
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A total of 22 adults have also been admitted to the hospital and are receiving treatment in the isolation ward there. According to hospital authorities, Pullammal, had renal complications following complaints of diarrhoea and had succumbed to it. The other patients are being administered IV fluids and are currently recuperating at the hospital.