VietNamNet Bridge – A snail sample taken from a market in HCM City tested positive for cholera, according to the Ministry of Health.

Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tuyen visits the family of a baby who died of diarrhea in HCMC.

Dr. Tran Dac Phu, director of the Preventive Medicine Department, said the snail sample was collected from the wholesale market of Binh Dien in Binh Chanh district.

The cholera bacteria detected in the snail is the type that caused the cholera pandemic in 2007.

The Preventive Medicine Department is tracking the source of the snails because if the bacteria grow in water, it can infect humans and cause epidemics.

Earlier, two people in Binh Chanh district died of acute diarrhea, and four samples taken from local people tested positive for E. coli.

Nguyen Huu Hung, deputy head of HCMC Department of Health said that the city had an average of 9,000 cases of acute diarrhoea a year. In the first seven months of the year, the city recorded 3,953 incidences of acute diarrhoea, with two fatalities.

Speaking to the press on August 6, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said that diarrhea in HCM City is occurring more and it can become a cholera epidemic since the bacteria has been detected in the environment.

"The risk of cholera transmission to humans is very high, especially in conditions of poor sanitation, lack of clean water and food safety not being ensured. If pathogens come from water, the risk of a cholera pandemic is very high. Therefore, the Ministry of Health has raised the alert level for diarrhea," Mr. Long said.

The official said the living environment in the suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City is at a high risk because many families build toilets on lakes and ponds and directly discharge waste into the environment.

Tran Dac Phu, head of the Preventive Medicine Department, said that the country had an average of 500,000 diarrhoea cases each year.

Since the beginning of this year, 301,570 incidences of diarrhoea were reported, with three fatalities, including one in Thanh Hoa Province and other two in HCM City.

However, the incidences fell by 14. 9 per cent and the number of fatalities by two.

Summer was the favourable condition for the development of diarrhoea, he said, adding that unhygienic environments and the public's lack of awareness of the importance of washing hands were to blame for such outbreaks.

In addition, diarrhoea often broke out in areas where floods occured, he added.

In this year's fourth quarter, three provinces with a high risk of cholera will give 150,000 vaccine shots to protect against the V. cholerae bacteria. The provinces are Thua Thien Hue, Tien Giang and Ben Tre.

Since 1998, 4.6 million vaccine shots have been provided in provinces that have a high risk of cholera. 

Most recently, a cholera outbreak occurred in the northern provinces in 2009.

At that time, the Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology found cholera bacteria in dog meat in Duong Noi Commune of Dong Anh District in Hanoi.

My Lan