Historical report of Cholera outbreaks in Nepal

When I happen to read  an article in the form of report with a title, " Report on the Cholera Epidemic of 1885 in Nepal; with short description of the topography and ihabitats of the valley", it was like time travel back to Rana regime.The author of the article is G H Gimlette, M.D., Residency - Surgeon and published on May 22, 1886. I think, this is the first scientific study and report of any disease outbreak investigation in Nepal. The description of the outbreak is vivid and the demography, geography and the sanitation and hygiene practice of those times are also decribed so clearly.

This article states that the first recorded epidemic of cholera in Nepal took place in 1823 and then next in 1831. Thereafter, there were series of epidemics in Kathmandu valley in 1843, 1856, 1862 and 1887.

Update on GEMS paper discussion

The Journal Club discussion on GEMS paper was interesting wider participation from various department esp. laboratory. However, I have to say that there was lack of participation from  junior scientists. So, there is still room for improvement.

The main idea of Journal club was to bring various experts in one table and discuss on the paper from various perspective and learn from each other.The discussion was interactive and lively with bold questions. I will write more on these questions in later posts.

One important question that I came up durin discussion was related to proportion of cholera cases among MSD < 5 years of children in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan and its relation with oral cholera vaccination.

 

CHOLERA OUTBREAK: ASSESSING THE OUTBREAK RESPONSE

On June 19, 2013, we are conducting an important discussion on a paper that was published in a Lancet re: moderate to severe diarrheal illness (MSD). This was a 3 years  multi centre prospective case control study popularly known as the Global Enteric Multicenter Study, GEMS. The main purpose of the study was to find out the burden and aetiology of diarrheal diseases in infants and young children in developing countries.

For more information, please visit the GEMS homepage for links to the study press release, a fact sheet, supplemental country-specific fact sheets, and an infographic summarizing study findings.