Diarrhea - Haiti Observer Blog

Cholera, a severe bacterial infection, affects the intestines, causing bouts of watery diarrhea, heaving, circulatory distress, and shock. Anyone can contract cholera, the exception being nursing infants. But there are particular contributors that can predispose people to the illness:

Malnutrition. People who are starving have a propensity to catching cholera. The illness takes hold in places where survivors of war or natural disasters live. Or in communities that suffer famine.

Low levels of stomach acid. Inadequate levels of stomach acid create an environment for cholera bacteria to flourish in. Age groups that have low-acidity markers are children and aged people. Gastric surgery survivors and antacid takers, suffering from ulcers, are also prone to getting cholera.

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Cholera, a potentially fatal disease in some cases affects the intestinal tract. Some forms of cholera are symptom-less, or exhibit only moderate signs of the illness. The onset of cholera symptoms happens within a 24- to 48-hour period. Typical signs of having contracted cholera include diarrhea, vomiting, and muscle cramps. In moderate cases, normally healthy people experience spontaneous and extreme amounts of watery diarrhea between one and five days of consuming food containing the Vibrio cholerae bacterium.

In extreme cases of cholera, which afflicts one out of twenty people, diarrhea is accompanied by vomiting and muscle cramps. These symptoms come on quickly, and excessive loss of body fluids caused by diarrhea will bring on dehydration. Dehydration may lead to shock. If this extreme form of cholera is left untreated, a person can die within a few short hours.

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