Cholera Symptoms and Signs

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.

When body fluids decrease rapidly, a plethora of other symptoms follow:

• thirst
• muscle weakness
• rapid heartbeat
• decreased output of urine
• induced coma
• death

Diarrhea fluid output can be as much as 18 liters over a 24-hour period. Once extreme dehydration sets in, kidney failure, distressed electrolyte ratios, and coma can result. This process, in untreated cases, can take place in as little as 18- to 72-hours.

Cholera epidemics in underdeveloped countries, such as Haiti, experience death rates up to 60%, of those who have contracted severe cases of the infection. The high percentage rate is linked to malnutrition, making those who suffer from it, more likely to contract a severe form of the infection.

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