By Lee Kyung-min
A fourth confirmed cholera patient, a 47-year-old male resident of Busan, may have contracted the waterborne disease during an overseas trip, health authorities said Sunday.
Despite this suggestion, the number of customers visiting seafood restaurants in the southern part of the country plummeted further following a report that he had dinner at one such restaurant in Busan, a day after he returned home.
According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), the man, whose identity is being withheld, tested positive for the disease Saturday morning.
The man went to the Philippines from Aug. 24 to 28. After returning home, he and his wife had dinner with two acquaintances at a seafood restaurant near his home, Aug. 29.
He came down with diarrhea two hours after dinner, and visited a hospital the next day after the symptoms did not subside. Currently, he is in an isolation ward.
The KDCD almost ruled out the possibility of his infection coming from the restaurant, given that the incubation period for cholera is at least two days.
“His symptoms started two hours after dinner. For the food in the Busan restaurant to be cited as the cause of his infection, his symptoms should have begun at least Aug 31 or Sept. 1,” a KCDC official said.
“Also, we found no vibrio cholera bacteria during an inspection of food ingredients at the restaurant,” she added.
In additional tests run by the KCDC, 15 people who came into contact with the man all tested negative including his two acquaintances, three family members, hospital officials, and restaurant workers.
DNA fingerprinting is underway to determine whether the genotype of the bacteria from the fourth patient matches that of the first three, the KCDC said.
It is reviewing the food and places he went upon his arrival here to determine whether he contracted the disease elsewhere in the country.
In cooperation with health authorities and medical institutions in Busan, the KCDC said that it has increased monitoring of patients with diarrhea in the region.
If he is confirmed to have contracted the disease overseas, he would be the first such case this year. The first patient who contracted cholera domestically this year was a man, 59, living in Gwangju, who ate sushi and marinated crabs during a trip to Geoje. The second patient, a 73-year-old woman living on Geoje Island, ate mackerel at her church. The third patient, 64, purchased squid and sardines at a fish market on Geoje and ate them at home. He said he blanched the squid and roasted the sardines; but was later found to have also consumed sushi.
The breakout of the infectious disease has hit the seafood industry in the southern region hard.