ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To study the source of infection, the scope of epidemic and control measures in an outbreak involving students having symptoms as fever, dizziness, headache, vomiting and nausea. METHODS: The suspected-case was defined as fever (armpit temperature ≥ 37°C) and with one or more of the following symptoms: dizziness, headache, vomiting and nausea, among students and teachers at school from Mar 1, 2012. Confirmed-case was among suspected case accompanied by both throat and rectal swabs enterovirus positive by RT-PCR. All the cases were collected through checking the medical records from 4 hospitals as well as through the absence records of students and teachers, from Mar 1, 2012. We conducted a case-control study with ratio of 1:2 and data on the exposures to water among students and teachers was collected prior to the illness. 27 cases' throat and rectal swabs were collected and analyzed by RT-PCR and PCR sequence methods. 2 warm-water samples were collected for testing the counts on total bacteria and E. coli. RESULTS: 103 students' cases were identified in school L, with the attack rate as 4.6% (103/2255). Students from Grade three had the high attack rate as 18.1% (72/397) and 77.7% (80/103) of the cases located in the building with 'multiple-functions'. Epidemic curve of the outbreak showed a pattern with continuous common source of infection. It seemed that the exposure to warm-water appeared to be the major risk factor (OR = 18.3, 95%CI: 2.0 - 169.5) together with the intake of un-boiled water (OR = 15.5, 95%CI: 1.7 - 141.8). Specimens from 27 students (81.5%, 22/27) were identified enterovirus positive by RT-PCR, and 7 of the 9 students were confirmed carrying Echo 30. Bacteria and coli were negative from the 2 warm-water samples. CONCLUSION: This viral meningitis-outbreak was caused by Echo 30, with drinking water as the major risk factor.
