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Man flying back to Miami appears to have cholera
Suspected infection third in Florida linked to Haiti outbreak
First cholera case in Florida found in Naples area
By Bob LaMendola, Sun Sentinel
5:23 p.m. EST, November 26, 2010
A physician returning from a medical trip to Haiti appears to have brought Florida the third case of cholera stemming from the outbreak on the beleaguered island, health officials said Friday.
The man developed symptoms during an American Airlines flight from neighboring Dominican Republic to Miami on Thursday evening and was hospitalized in Miami, said Dr. Fermin Leguen, chief of disease control at the Miami-Dade County Health Department. He is stable and recovering.
The man experienced severe diarrhea and vomiting, which are the key signs of the potentially deadly bacterial disease, Leguen said.
"It's highly suggestive of cholera," Leguen said. Tests to confirm the illness will take several more days, he said.
Officials again repeated there's virtually no chance the Haiti outbreak could spread to Florida via travelers. Cholera is transmitted almost exclusively by water and food contaminated by the feces of infected people, which would be almost impossible with modern U.S. water systems.
American Airlines notified the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the man's illness before the plane landed, CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said.
"We were told the man is a physician, and he was treating cholera patients in Haiti or the Dominican Republic," Nordlund said.
There's no sign the man's illness posed any risk for other passengers on the Boeing 767, Leguen said. Passengers would have had to touch and ingest contaminated fluids. The plane was thoroughly cleaned under CDC guidelines and put back in service, Nordlund said.
Cholera is a bacteria that invades through the mouth. Most people have mild or no symptoms, but untreated cases can cause severe diarrhea and fatal dehydation as the body attempts to flush it out.
The only confirmed Florida case of cholera related to Haiti so far was in a Collier County woman, who was infected earlier this month while visiting relatives in the Artibonite River region.
Another suspected case likely will be confirmed early next week, said Rob Hayes, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Health. He would not say where in the Florida the case was found.
Altogether, 11 Floridians have had cholera this year — four in Palm Beach County and one in Broward County — all of them contracted overseas.
The Haiti outbreak has claimed 1,600 lives and hospitalized more than 29,000 people since mid-October, the Ministry of Public Health and Population reported Friday. Worldwide, about 5,000 deaths and 200,000 cases of cholera were reported last year.
Bob LaMendola can be reached at [email protected] or 954-356-4526.
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