Abstract

PEREZ RODRIGUEZ, ANTONIO E et al. El cólera en un distrito de Perú. Rev Cubana Med Trop [online]. 1996, vol.48, n.3, pp. 204-208. ISSN 1561-3054.

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 occurence 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 frecuency 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.

Keywords : CHOLERA [epidemiology]; HEALTH SURVEYS; VIBRIO CHOLERAE [isolation and purification]; PERU; REGRESSION ANALYSIS.