The one isolated in Sardinia on a 71-year-old patient from Arbus is not a case of cholera. This was ascertained by the experts of the Higher Institute of Health called to give a certain answer after the first checks carried out on the island. “The bacterial strain in question belongs to the Vibrio cholerae species, but not to the serogroups that cause cholera. The strain found is quite common in brackish aquatic environments and normally does not cause symptoms”, reads a note from the ISS. The heads of the department of infectious diseases have therefore officially declared that the case of cholera is not confirmed.
The Higher Institute of Health provides further clarifications: “The bacterial strain of Vibrio cholerae, sent by the University Hospital of Cagliari, and isolated on July 3 from a stool sample of a hospitalized patient, was analyzed by the Department of infectious diseases of the ISS to confirm the diagnosis of cholera. The confirmation of the diagnosis of cholera must be performed according to the indications of the case definition established by the ECDC in 2018, i.e. ‘any person presenting with diarrhea or vomiting and from whom it has been isolated a strain of Vibrio cholerae bearing the O1 or O139 antigens and the gene encoding the enterotoxin or the enterotoxin itself'”. So the verdict: It’s not cholera.
The patient is still at the Santissima Trinità hospital in Cagliari: he is doing better and could be discharged from the infectious ward in the next few days.
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