THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF VIBRIO CHOLERAE IN ZABOL CITY, SOUTHEAST OF IRAN

Background: Cholera continues to be an important public health problem in many communities. Objective: This study was performed to determine the epidemiology of Vibrio cholerae in Zabol city, South-East of Iran. Methods: The study was conducted in the hospitals affiliated to Zabol Faculty of Medicine, with patients referred from Zabol city and its 45 neighboring rural populations. Three thousand one hundred seventy-eight patients with watery diarrhea, who were referred to this center, were investigated in a descriptive retrospective study over a 4-year period. Results: Vibrio cholerae strains were isolated from 362 (11.39%) samples. Of these, 336 (92.8%) were found to be Vibrio cholerae O1 Ogawa strain. Nonagglutinable (NAG) vibrios accounted for 26 (7.2%) strains. Twenty-four cases lived in an urban area, 270 had been referred from rural areas, and 68 came from Afghanistan. Two hundred forty-four cases were inpatients while the remaining 118 were outpatients. Twelve (3.31%) of these patients died of the disease. Conclusion: Vibrio cholerae remains an important cause of acute watery diarrhea in Sistan and Baluchestan Province of Iran especially rural area.