Browsing by Author "Chowdhury, A S"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Acute diarrhoea caused by Vibrio mimicus in Calcutta.
    (1993-08-01) Mitra, U; De, S P; Bhattacharya, M K; Dutta, P; Dutta, D; Rasaily, R; Banerjee, D; Nag, A; Chowdhury, A S; Bhattacharya, S K
    Out of 539 acute diarrhoea cases studied, Vibrio mimicus was isolated as a sole pathogen in the faeces of 7 (1.3%) cases. The chief clinical presentations of the seven cases were watery diarrhoea and vomiting. Bloody diarrhoea was observed in 2 (28.5%), abdominal pain in 2 (28.57%) and fever in one (14.29) cases. All cases could be effectively treated with ORS except 3 (42.85%) cases who required IV Ringer's lactate. All V. mimicus strains isolated in the study were uniformly susceptible to tetracycline, chloramphenicol, norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Epidemic of Vibrio cholerae 0139 in Calcutta.
    (1994-11-01) Bhattacharya, S K; Goswami, A G; Bhattacharya, M K; Dutta, D; Deb, A; Deb, M; Sircar, B K; Chowdhury, A S; Das, K P; Nair, G B
    As one of large outbreaks of cholera-like illness in the Indian subcontinent, Calcutta and its neighbouring areas experienced an unprecedented epidemic due to a new strain of V. cholerae non-01, designated as V. cholerae 0139 Bengal, since January 1993. This epidemic predominantly affected the adult population of Calcutta as evidenced by the hospitalization of more adults at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Calcutta (IDH), which bore the main brunt of the epidemic in and around Calcutta. During the peak of the epidemic about 180 to 300 diarrhoea patients were admitted daily at the IDH. Of the 807 patients screened, 407 were positive for V. cholerae 0139 and majority (82.8%) of the cases were > 10 yr of age. Severe dehydration was recorded in 85.5 per cent of the cases.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Serovar, biotype, phage type, toxigenicity & antibiotic susceptibility patterns of Vibrio cholerae isolated during two consecutive cholera seasons (1989-90) in Calcutta.
    (1992-05-01) Ramamurthy, T; Pal, A; Bhattacharya, M K; Bhattacharya, S K; Chowdhury, A S; Takeda, Y; Takeda, T; Pal, S C; Nair, G B
    Characteristics of V. cholerae isolated from patients of acute secretory diarrhoea admitted to the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Calcutta during two consecutive cholera seasons (1989 and 1990), with special emphasis on biotyping and toxigenicity, were investigated. The isolation rates of V. cholerae during 1989 and 1990 were 78 and 85.1 per cent respectively, with Inaba serotype dominating in 1989 and Ogawa in 1990. All the V. cholerae 01 strains isolated in this study belonged to biotype Eltor with phage type 4 dominating (48.8%). Most of the strains of V. cholerae were resistant to 10 and 150 micrograms/ml of 0/129 vibriostatic agent. Similarly, majority of the V. cholerae strains were resistant to furazolidone (95.7%), cotrimoxazole (83%) and tetracycline (63.1%) and several resistance patterns were encountered. All the V. cholerae 01 strains examined produced cholera toxin (CT) in amounts ranging between greater than 70 pg/ml and greater than 2.5 ng/ml. In contrast, all but one of the non-01 strains isolated in this study did not produce CT. Further studies are required to elucidate the mechanism involved in the pathogenesis of non-01 V. cholerae mediated diarrhoea.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Uncooked rice powder in oral rehydration solution: an alternative to glucose or cooked rice powder.
    (1998-06-14) Dutta, D; Bhattacharya, M K; Deb, A; Chowdhury, A S; Nair, G B; Ramakrishna, B S; Bhattacharya, S K
    Glucose-based or rice-based ORS is the standard treatment in acute dehydrating diarrhoea. However, glucose may not be easily available in remote villages and the rice needs to be cooked for rice-based ORS. We embarked on a study to examine whether uncooked rice powder could be used as an alternative to glucose or cooked rice powder in ORS. Initially, 50 adult male patients (aged 18 to 55 yr) were randomized to receive glucose-ORS or uncooked rice ORS, in two equal groups. Subsequently, 20 male children (aged 3 to 12 yr) were also enrolled in the study and received either WHO-ORS or study ORS. All the adult patients and the children could be successfully rehydrated with ORS containing uncooked rice powder. As compared to WHO-ORS, the study ORS significantly reduced stool output (6.60 +/- 1.24 vs. 5.88 +/- 1.34 l), ORS intake (9.17 +/- 1.54 vs 8.24 +/- 1.69 l) and duration of diarrhoea (45.68 +/- 6.91 vs 41.32 +/- 6.03 h). In children also similar results were obtained. No clinical complication (e.g., vomiting, abdominal pain etc.) or abnormality in serum electrolyte concentrations was encountered either in the adults or in the children. Uncooked rice powder containing ORS can be considered as an alternative to glucose-based ORS or rice-based ORS.