2nd Patient Comes Down with Cholera

A second case of cholera was confirmed in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province on Thursday after a record heat wave threw up the first Cholera infection here in 15 years last week.

Both patients are believed to have been infected after eating seafood in Geoje. Public health authorities warned against a further spread of the disease, which had been thought to be eradicated in Korea.

The latest victim is a 73-year-old woman from Geoje, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

She had diarrhea after eating raw fish that a fellow churchgoer had caught in waters off Geoje on Aug. 14. She was hospitalized on Aug. 17 but left hospital on Wednesday because her condition improved.

Eleven other villagers who also ate the fish did not show any symptoms.

The first patient, a 59-year-old man from Gwangju, came down with cholera presumably after eating seafood on a family holiday on the south coast earlier this month.