Upsurge of Salmonella Paratyphi a infection in and around Puducherry following the torrential rains of December 2015

Introduction: Incidence of Salmonella Paratyphi A is on the increasing trend as compared to S.Typhi in the past few decades, in India. This upsurge in the incidence of paratyphoid fever is a large financial burden and of great public health concern. Following heavy rain fall, we observed clustering of paratyphoid cases from Puducherry. Hence this study was conducted to evaluate the demographic profile and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of these S.Paratyphi A isolates. Material & Methods: Retrospective analysis was done among 43 paratyphoid cases, for analysing their demographic profile, clinical profile, antibiogram pattern and treatment given for them. Results: All 43 S.Paratyphi A isolates were from in and around Puducherry within 10 kilometers, with similar clinical profile and showed uniform susceptibility to first line antibiotics, azithromycin and ceftriaxone. All the isolates showed reduced susceptibility to ciprofloxacin. The outbreak lasted for four months, and probably due to good sanitation, water chlorination and good drainage facilities helped to control the outbreak. Conclusion: S.Paratyphi A is replacing S.Typhi in Puducherry. Clustering of cases with same antibiogram over a short time period in a geographically restricted area needs to be further evaluated as an outbreak, which has to be tackled precisely and effective preventive measures needs to be undertaken to prevent such outbreaks in future.