Cholera

cholera, an acute infection of the small intestine caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae and characterized by extreme diarrhea with rapid and severe depletion of body fluids and salts. Cholera has often risen to epidemic proportions in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, particularly in India and Bangladesh. In the past two centuries, seven pandemics (global epidemics) of cholera have carried the disease to countries around the world.

Cholera is a disease that can incite populations to panic. Its reputation as a fierce and unrelenting killer is a deserved one. It has been responsible for the deaths of millions, for economic losses of immense magnitude, and for the disruption of the very fabric of society in all parts of the world. In spite of the chaos that it continues to generate, cholera is perhaps the best understood of the modern plagues. The organism that causes it has been studied extensively for well over a century; its modes of transmission have been identified; and safe, effective, and inexpensive interventions for both preventing infection and treating clinical illness have been developed.