Russia's Consumer Protection Service in the southern Rostov Region has stepped up controls on the border with Ukraine following an outbreak of cholera in the neighboring Donetsk region, the regional CPS head said on Wednesday.
Four cholera cases were registered in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, 50 km from the border, in late May.
All of them were attributed to fish caught in a local river.
CPS regional administration head Mikhail Solovyov said he doubted fish could have been the source of contamination, suggesting that the cholera bacterium, known as Vibrio cholerae, had most likely been transferred through the water supply system.
"Cholera has always spread mainly through water," he said. "Never through food."
Sanitation and quarantine facilities have been set up at rail, water and motor border crossing points, he said.
ROSTOV-ON-DON, June 1 (RIA Novosti)
