Under the wing of an airplane

Cholera brought to Russia on a flight from India

Summer imports of overseas infections are approaching their peak. Last week, the leadership of the Russian sanitary and epidemiological service announced that the second case of cholera importation had been registered since the beginning of this year. Just like the first time (at the beginning of June, this diagnosis was made to a young woman with an infant), the disease “flew” from India. “We received final confirmation of the diagnosis of cholera from an Aeroflot flight attendant; she was flying in this direction on June 26-28. And on June 29, I was in Paris for one day,” the chief sanitary doctor of Russia, Gennady Onishchenko, said the other day.

Upon returning to Moscow on the evening of June 29, the flight attendant felt unwell - she had typical symptoms of cholera. “On July 1, she was hospitalized at Clinical Hospital No. 2,” Mr. Onishchenko informed. He noted that the flight attendant's children, aged four and 16, were also hospitalized for preventive purposes. They have no signs of illness. To avoid an epidemic, 32 people were examined - all members of the crew who served the flight and had contact with the flight attendant. The health workers who admitted her to the hospital were also examined. As of Sunday evening, they were all healthy. “The hospitalized person’s condition is satisfactory. There is no threat to life,” Interfax reports, citing a source in medical circles.

The measures taken are quite enough to avoid an epidemic, doctors are sure. According to Gennady Onishchenko, “the timeliness and completeness of the measures taken gives reason to say that this case will not spread.” True, the chief sanitary doctor noted that he considers the infection of the Aeroflot flight attendant to be a consequence of her own negligence. “If a person who undergoes special training to be responsible for passengers gets cholera, it means he is professionally illiterate. Even by communicating with cholera patients, serving them, and observing simple personal hygiene measures, this disease can be prevented,” said Mr. Onishchenko. As an edification to future travelers, the chief sanitary doctor recalled several basic rules of behavior that will protect against cholera: responsible choice of places to eat, use of drinking water even for washing, thorough and repeated washing of hands, fruits and vegetables. Particularly avoid foods such as shellfish, shrimp, salted and dried fish, as these are foods that are usually not properly cooked.

Over the past 100 years, cholera has ceased to be a deadly disease; after the discovery of antibiotics, it began to be successfully treated and thoroughly studied. Therefore, despite the severity of the disease and the risk of dehydration, most patients quickly return to normal. Nevertheless, cases of cholera imported from abroad into our country are registered annually. Last year, cholera was brought to Russia from India, China and the Middle East. In approximately 4-5% of recovered patients, a chronic presence of vibrio in the gallbladder develops. This is especially true for older people. After an illness, the body of those who have recovered from the disease develops immunity, which, however, does not exclude infection with other serotypes of Vibrio cholerae.

Galina PAPERNAYA