Reviewed by medical experts • For informational purposes only
Water-borne Vibrio infection causing rapid massive fluid loss - deadly through dehydration, almost fully curable through prompt ORS.
Cholera is a bacterial infection of the small intestine that causes sudden, profuse watery diarrhea - and it can dehydrate an adult to danger within hours. It is also one of medicine's most treatable emergencies: with fluids given promptly and correctly, almost everyone survives.
Cholera is caused by Vibrio cholerae, a bacterium swallowed with contaminated water or food. Where drinking water and sewage mix - floods, broken pipelines, crowded camps, unsafe wells - cholera follows. The bacteria release a toxin that makes the intestinal lining pour out water and salts: the body loses fluid faster than it can be replaced.
Sudden onset of large-volume, painless, watery stools - pale and flecked, classically called "rice-water" stools - with vomiting and little or no fever. The danger is not the infection itself but the speed of dehydration: sunken eyes, dry mouth, poor skin pinch, scant urine, weakness, then lethargy and collapse if fluids do not keep pace.
Cholera kills by dehydration - and dehydration is fixable. Oral rehydration solution (ORS), started early and taken continuously, treats most cases completely at home or at a simple facility. Severe cases need rapid intravenous fluids, and even they recover fully with timely care. Fatality in treated cholera is under 1%; untreated, it can reach half.
Profuse watery diarrhea with signs of dehydration - especially in an outbreak or after floods - means fluids now and a hospital now. Do not wait to "see how it goes".
Cholera is water-borne Vibrio infection causing rapid massive fluid loss - deadly through dehydration, almost fully curable through prompt ORS and IV fluids.
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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Cholera is swallowed with contaminated water or food - floods, mixed pipelines and poor hand hygiene open the door.
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.
