Academy of Medical Sciences of I.R. Iran Archives of Iranian Medicine 1029-2977 14 5 2011 09 01 A Cholera Outbreak Associated with Drinking Contaminated Well Water 0 0 EN Reza Ranjbar Mohammad Rahbar Ali Naghoni Shohreh Farshad Amin Davari Fereshteh Shahcheraghi Journal Article BACKGROUND: Cholera has been a significant public health challenge in many communities. An outbreak of acute diarrheal illness occurred among participants in a wedding ceremony in a village in Qazvin, Iran, in 2008. We conducted an epidemiological, environmental and microbiological investigation to determine the causative agent, source and extent of this outbreak. METHODS: Clinical and environmental samples were collected and analyzed for the presence of diarrhea-causing bacterial organisms, which included Vibrio cholera. The relationship between the strains was determined using enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus polymerase chain reaction (ERIC-PCR). RESULTS: The attack rate was 21.8%. Clinical and environmental samples were positive for V. cholerae serotype Inaba. All tested isolates had a similar ERIC-PCR pattern, which indicated that a single clone of V. cholerae was responsible for this outbreak. CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrated that well water was the source of this outbreak.