Reviewed by medical experts • For informational purposes only
Cholera is swallowed with contaminated water or food - floods, mixed pipelines and poor hand hygiene open the door.
Cholera has one cause - Vibrio cholerae - and one doorway: the mouth. Everything about who falls sick comes down to water, food and hygiene.
Vibrio cholerae survives in water and is swallowed with contaminated food or drink. In the small intestine it releases cholera toxin, which locks the intestinal cells into pouring out water and electrolytes - liters a day in severe cases. The germ inflames little; it drains. That is why cholera diarrhea is massive but painless.
Casual contact, air, sharing a room: cholera is swallowed, not breathed. Caring for a patient with ordinary hand hygiene is safe - it is the water and food pathway that must be guarded.
Cholera is swallowed with contaminated water or food; floods, mixed pipelines and poor hand hygiene open the door - and stomach acid, clean water and handwashing close it.
Written By
Dr. Daksh
BDS
Reviewed By
Dr. Varun Gupta
MD Pharmacology, MBBS
Last updated on
27 Sep 2022 • 06:23 PM (IST)
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Water-borne Vibrio infection causing rapid massive fluid loss - deadly through dehydration, almost fully curable through prompt ORS.
ORS sipped continuously, continued feeding, strict hand hygiene - home care holds mild cholera; dehydration signs mean hospital.
ORS continuously, light salty-starchy food kept going, protein-potassium rebuild after - in cholera the kitchen is half the treatment.
Classical atisara care - rice gruels, rest, staged re-feeding - supports mild illness; dehydration belongs to ORS and hospitals.
Shock, salt crashes, kidney failure, child hypoglycemia - all downstream of untreated fluid loss, all preventable.
ORS from the first stool, facility care at dehydration signs, IV fluids and antibiotics for the severe - fluids, escalated fast.
