Epidemiological investigation of an outbreak of enteric fever in a village in Maharashtra.

Four hundred fifteen fever cases occurred in village Katkalamba, in Nanded district, Maharashtra during November-December, 1995. Explosive nature of the outbreak, non involvement of infants, significantly higher incidence rate in the age group 1-14 years and clustering of almost all cases in the users of a particular well indicated it to be a water borne outbreak. Laboratory investigations in selected cases confirmed it to be an outbreak of enteric fever. Chemical and microbiological examination of water samples from the suspected wells gave evidence of faecal contamination of water. Circumstances under which the contamination occurred and the outbreak spread are discussed.

Incidence of hepatitis B surface antigen in liver diseases and voluntary blood donors.

A total of 5,606 samples were collected during January 1978 to December 1983. Out of which 4,900 were of voluntary blood donors, 564 of acute hepatitis, 130 of liver cirrhosis and 12 from hepatocellular carcinoma cases. All these samples were studied by counter immune-electro-osmophoresis (CIEP) for the presence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg). The HBsAg were detected in 40 samples from voluntary donors (0.8%), 122 cases of acute hepatitis (21.6%), 20 cases of liver cirrhosis (15.3%) and 2 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma (16.6%).

Study of diphtheria carriers in Miraj.

Following a case of diphtheria, 131 contacts were studied for throat and nose carriage. The carriage of C. diphtheriae was found to be 19.8%, 65.3% of them were toxin producing by counter-immunoelectrophoresis (CIEP). The carriers were treated with erythromycin for 7 days. Repeat swabs found them to be negative for C. diphtheriae except in four who had erythromycin resistant and penicillin sensitive strains. Penicillin treatment eliminated the organisms.