CAGLIARI - - An elderly man has been hospitalised with cholera in Cagliari, Sardinia.

 A 71-year-old resident of Arbus, in the south of the island, has been hospitalised for almost a week in the infectious diseases department of the Santissima Trinità hospital in Cagliari, health authorities report. His conditions are now improving, reports Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano.

 However, the particular circumstances of the infection are unknown at the moment - the man suffers from heart disease and had not travelled abroad recently. He showed the first symptoms around a month ago, according to Fatto. 

 Epidemiological investigations are underway on his family members, who live in the Medio Campidano area and at the moment are not showing any symptoms but the results of the tests are yet to come back, healthcare authorities add. The mayor of Arbus was also informed.

 The emergency, reports Sardinian newspaper L’Unione sarda, took place on 4 July, when the elderly man arrived at the hospital after being admitted to another healthcare facility. He had complained of gastrointestinal problems and had not had any success with “classic” treatments.

 At that point, the hypothesis of a case of cholera emerged and doctors started investigations. The man was consequently transferred to the infectious diseases department. 

 The planned protocol was triggered even before the diagnostic certainty, which arrived shortly after the results of the cultures, from which the presence of the bacterium, called “vibrio cholerae”, emerged. This is the first official case in the region since 1973.

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