What is cholera?
By jasjon
@jasjon (252)
Philippines
December 21, 2006 8:36pm CST
Cholera is an acute illness that results in profuse watery diarrhea. "It's caused by the Vibrio cholera bacterium, a relatively simple organism that lives in fresh water. Cholera is a bacterial infection.
Over the years160 strains of cholera have been identified. Of these strains, only two produce a toxin that causes diarrhea. These are serigraphs 01 and 0139. Simply put, the numbers help distinguish when the strains were identified. Vibrio cholera 0139, for example, was only discovered about six years ago, while Vibrio cholera 01 was the first strain to be identified many years ago.
"Under normal circumstances, your gut absorbs water and nutrients from the food you eat and drink, but when you are infected with cholera, the opposite occurs. The toxin released by the bacteria causes increased secretion of water and chloride ions from the intestine, which results in watery diarrhea. If the diarrhea goes untreated, death can result from severe dehydration and shock.
1 person likes this
9 responses
@paulnet (748)
• India
30 Mar 07
It is caused by a specific bacterium, Vibrio cholerae. When an adequate quantity of the bacteria has passed into the stomach in food they accumulate and begin to produce toxins in the body. The cholera toxin has the unpleasant ability to affect the cells of the gastrointestinal tract so that the affected person doesn't just get ordinary diarrhoea, but also starts to lose very large quantities of fluid. It is this fluid loss that can be very serious. Here are some tips:-
Take only boiled water or water that has been sterilised or treated in another way. Hot coffee and tea, fizzy water are usually safe enough to drink.
Boil unpasteurised milk before you take it.
Avoid ice cubes in drinks.
Food must be properly prepared and still hot when it is served.
Avoid raw fruit and vegetables, unless you peel it yourself. n' also raw fish and shellfish.
@123456_ (1052)
• Philippines
22 Dec 06
thats interestin!
to add up..aside from dringking contaminated water, people can also be infectedwith V. cholera by eating uncooked fish and shellfish. it is also true that there is an increase secretion that may lead to diarrhea but you may be able to differentiate cholera from other bowel inflammatory diseases and infection because stools of a cholera infected person is rice-watery.
@moneygrows (170)
• Canada
22 Dec 06
look up in some dictionary and you will know more... first refer english dictionary and later you can look up in medical dictionary
@thatcrazyqbanita (3312)
• United States
22 Dec 06
Some people would die from things a a century ago. You should read the book "Love in the time of cholera"
