Epidemiological and laboratory investigations of outbreaks of diarrhoea in rural South India: implications for control of disease

Abstract

Two epidemics of acute, watery diarrhoea in villages in North Arcot district, India, were investigated. The attack rates were 10·03 and 15·53 per 100 population, the median duration was 5 days and enteric pathogens were present in 56·8% and 60·3% of specimens from the two villages, but no predominant pathogen was identified. Examination of stools from a 20% age-stratified random sample of the population of one of the villages after the epidemic found 22·9% of asymptomatic subjects excreted bacterial enteric pathogens. Despite the high background of enteric pathogen carriage, the isolation rates for shigellae, enteropathogenic Escherichia coli and Shiga-toxin producing E. coli were significantly higher (P < 0·001, P < 0·02, P < 0·05) during the epidemic. The epidemics may have been caused by faecal contamination of well water following rain. Point-of-use techniques for water disinfection may be most effective for preventing such outbreaks, but further research into the development of appropriate technology is required.