What else should you do if there is an outbreak of a diarrhoeal disease, which threatens to spread in the community?
Which bacterial or viral diarrhoeal diseases are most often associated with epidemics? Do you remember two reasons why?
Whenever you suspect there may be a single case of cholera or shigellosis in your community, you must take swift action to investigate and report it, and apply measures to control the source of infection before it can spread. Epidemic investigation techniques will be discussed in detail in Study Session 42, so here we will briefly summarise the main points.
Why do you think it is important to report suspected cases of cholera or shigellosis to the woreda (District) Health Office?
You should try to identify everyone who has been in close contact with the source patient (i.e. the first case in your community) by asking the patient, the family and neighbours about what the patient has been doing recently and who he or she has seen. It is particularly important to locate everyone who has been eating the same food or drinking water from the same place as the patient. Give these individuals advice to seek early treatment if the illness starts and to report it immediately.