Drug by Condition – Cholera
Introduction
Cholera is a disease that is rarely seen in the USA. Reported cases of the condition come only from people who recently visited cholera endemic regions or eating poorly cooked seafood. However, the statistics around world speak a different story. Cholera is still a major condition that many people fight against. WHO reports that there are about 1.3 million to 4 million cases of cholera reported around the world annually. The disease is also responsible for death of about 21,000 to 143,000 people per year. (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs107/en/)
Cholera was once a pandemic disease, causing death of millions of people. Today, cholera exists in regions that are developing but is easily curable and is considered an endemic disease.
The
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The bacteria once inside the human body, replicates itself over a period of 2 weeks and attacks the small intestine. In the small intestine, the bacteria cause an imbalance in minerals by secreting a toxin called CTX, which causes severe diarrhea.
An infected individual can also spread the bacteria by contaminating water and food. Vibrio cholerae are present in high concentration in human stools. Therefore, impoverished areas and developing countries are at higher risk of being cholera endemic regions.
There are many other secondary causes for the spread of this infection like eating street foods and consuming poorly cooked seafoods. Contaminated water, which when used for agriculture can spread the infection in fruits and vegetables.
Sources:
https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/cholera-faq#1