Knowing more about cholera and its devastating effect

The things we eat or drink these days is becoming the major reasons behind the sickness we suffer in the world today.

I can probably say that most of this sickness we suffer could be as a result of our carelessness on how we handle the things we eat or drink.

Today in Africa more especially the part I come from diseases like enteric fever, cholera and many of them is rapidly increasing on regular bases.
But today, I am going to be talking on cholera and it's devastating effects in human.

Let's begin

what is cholera

Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae

This disease is mostly found in the less developed countries where good hygiene can be hardly maintained. One bad thing about this disease is its ability to kill if left untreated.
According to research

It has been estimated that each year there are 1.3 to 4.0 million cases of cholera, and 21 000 to 143 000 deaths worldwide due to cholera

Looking at it, you can see the increase rate of mortality rate we face on daily bases due to cholera. When infected with this disease, it takes about 12hours to 5 days to start experiencing the symptoms. Sometimes this symptoms may be mild or absence as the case may be.

This disease is also grouped into different sero group but only two of them can result to outbreak. This two are O1 and O139.

Vibrio cholera can also result to severe diarrhea if proper treatment is not being given. This diarrhea starts and extends to five days. This diarrhea can lead to severe dehydration and electrolyte imbalance.

The mechanism of action of vibrio cholera

Vibrio cholera when consumed are very deadly, sometimes the already consumed ones hardly survives the acidic nature of the stomach which makes it difficult to pass down the small intestine.

The few surviving ones conserves their energy and shut down their protein production until they gets to the small intestine. On getting to the intestine they penetrate the wall of the intestine to get inside the intestinal wall where they actually strives and attacks.

At the intestinal wall, the flagella is no longer needed, the bacteria stops the production of the protein flagellin to conserve more energy in other to start producing toxic protein that causes watery diarrhea.

Frequent diarrhea is the main problem about this bacteria. The affected person produce up to 10 to 20 litters of diarrhea a day. Which is capable of killing half of the affected individual if not properly treated.

People who have vibrio cholera presents a whole lots of symptoms like cold clammy skin, dry mouth, sunken eyes and a deep and laboured breathing pattern.

But still then vibrio cholera is among the top most problem facing most under developed country as of today.

This disease can be diagnose using dipstick method. This is to help identify the particular bacteria causing the disease. The stool and swab sample are best collected before drug administration to avoid any alteration in the result.

Treatment

Fluid intake is one of the best way of helping any patient suffering from this disease. This is because, intake of fluid helps to replenish the already lost fluid as a result of the diarrhea.

Continued eating speeds the recovery of normal intestinal function. The WHO recommends this generally for cases of diarrhea no matter what the underlying cause.[68] A CDC training manual specifically for cholera states: "Continue to breastfeed your baby if the baby has watery diarrhea, even when traveling to get treatment. Adults and older children should continue to eat frequently

Looking at the above information, you can see the importance of taking a lot of fluid and food anytime you have cholera.

Aside the fluid consumption, cholera can also be treated with the help of antibiotics.
Antibiotics helps to shorten the cause of the disease and also helps in people who has severe dehydration.

Conclusion

Vibrio cholera is one of the top challenge facing the world as of today.
This disease is less regarded by some people. But is one of the major causes of death world wide.

This disease though can be dangerous but can be prevented by knowing how we eat and the things we put in our stomach.

Most times the water and the food we take are the main reason why we suffer from this disease. With this, I believe we all should take adequate precautions on the things we eat to avoid this devastating disease called cholera.