Bengaluru issues advisory for seasonal diseases amid cholera fear

Municipality says it is stepping up awareness about disease transmission and sanitation

Bengaluru’s municipal corporation has issued an advisory for seasonal diseases and precautions, reacting after concerns about cholera in the city that is battling a water crisis.

A 27-year-old woman in Malleshwaram, a neighborhood in the northwest, was hospitalised on March 30 with symptoms of loose motions and vomiting and was suspected of having cholera. However, later tests for cholera were negative, said the BBMP.

"The treating physician suspected cholera and raised an alarm to the nearby primary health centre. The initial screening test showed positivity, but later the confirmatory lab test results were negative for the given stool sample. There was no significant history of recent travel, visiting crowded places, or intake of outside food," said the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

The BBMP said its health education efforts are focused on disease transmission awareness and sanitation practices. As many as 10 water samples were collected, with results pending from the public health institute lab.

"A detailed survey of the suspected disease area was conducted by the BBMP health team, and no cases were detected among 165 houses surveyed in the adjoining areas," said the advisory.

BBMP’s health department, as a preventive measure, advised all zonal health and medical officers to build rapid response teams at the constituency level to tackle any cholera outbreak. The BBMP advised that hotels, restaurants and cafes give boiled drinking water to customers.

The BBMP said that suspected cholera cases at private and government healthcare facilities such as primary and community health centres, general hospitals, private hospitals, medical colleges, and private laboratories under its jurisdiction be reported in the Integrated Health Information Platform portal.

It asked senior health inspectors to collect water samples daily and send them to public health Institute labs for surveillance. "Create awareness among the general public by setting up ORS corners at Urban Primary Health Centres and educate on the prevention of water-borne diseases," it said.