Cholera Carriers and Circulation of Cholera Vibrios in the Community

Benčić, Z (Andrija Stamper School of Public Health, Medical Faculty, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Yugoslavia), and Sinha, R. Cholera carriers and circulation of cholera vibrios in the community. Int. J. Epid. 1972,1: 13–14. Until recently, many authors have claimed that healthy carriers do not play an important role in the spread of cholera or in maintaining an endemic area. The most recent investigation in endemic have, however, provided evidence that the spread of cholera continues largely by means of healthy carriers, that V. cholerae may persist all the year round, and that the vibrio may be found when no clinically manifest cases are abserved. Within small, semi-isolated communities V. cholerae may persist for several months without any case of cholera appearing during that times. V. cholerae may also circulate among members of a family. All these heathly carriers are for the most part short- term carriers and short-term shedders of the organism; they are rarely chronic carriers. It is very difficult to detect chronic carriers in an endemic area, owing to possible re-inflections, though it is possible if they discharge V. cholerae that is easily identifiable, by characteristics different from those of the type which permanently circulates in an area. All these recent findings point to the important role played by healthy carriers of V. cholerae in the persistence and spread of cholera infection in endemic areas.