Cholera

For our final Action Project for Disease we had to research a communiable disease that had an outbreak at some point in history. I chose to write a mini article about Cholera. This connects to today's current events as the COVID-19 pandemic is at large.

“What is Cholera?” you may be wondering. Cholera is an infectious disease that is caused by the Vibrio cholerae. Cholera infections often have mild to no symptoms, but can be extremely severe. 10% of infected will experience diaherra, vomiting, and leg cramps. The reason this could be fatal is because it can cause rapid loss of body fluids which leads to dehydration and shock. Symptoms typically appear within 2-3 days. 

The first cholera pandemic emerged out of the Ganges Delta with an outbreak in Jessore, India, in 1817, stemming from contaminated rice. The disease quickly spread throughout most of India by traveling along trade routes established by Europeans. The pandemic died out 6 years after it began. According to the CDC, someone can contract cholera by ingesting food and/or water that contains the bacterium. Usually, the source of contamination is from feces of an infected person. Casual contact with someone with cholera is not a risk for becoming ill. Symptoms can develop within 12 hours to 5 days after infection. If not treated, both adults and children can die within hours. Cholera usually passes through the body within 1- 10 days, which leaves potential for more infections.Though the exact number of deaths, from the original Cholera pandemic, is unclear there was an estimated 30,000 deaths just in Bangkok alone. It wasn’t until July of 1892 when Russian-Jewish bacteriologist, Waldemar Haffkine, developed the first cholera vaccine in July 1892. Today, Vaxchora, is the only FDA approved vaccine to treat cholera. There are also two other vaccines available called, Dukoral and ShanChol; however, they require two doses in order to protect one from the disease. 

If we learned anything from cholera is to make sure to cook food, especially seafood, well, drink and use safe drinking water, and avoid any bodies of water contaminated with feces.