cholera

(noun)

Any of several acute infectious diseases of humans and domestic animals, caused by the Vibrio cholerae bacterium through ingestion of contaminated water or food, usually marked by severe gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, and dehydration.

Related Terms

Examples of cholera in the following topics:

  • Cholera

    • Cholera is an infection in the small intestine caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae.
    • Cholera is an infection in the small intestine caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae.
    • Cholera is typically transmitted by either contaminated food or water.
    • Cholera is rarely spread directly from person to person.
    • A number of safe and effective oral vaccines for cholera are available.

  • Noncholera Vibrios

    • The name Vibrio derives from Filippo Pacini who isolated microorganisms he called "vibrions" from cholera patients in 1854, because of their motility.
    • Vibrio cholerae O1 and O139 serovtypes produce cholera toxin and are agents of cholera .
    • Fecal-oral route infections in the terrestrial environment are responsible for epidemic cholera.
    • Most strains cause gastroenteritis such as V. cholerae non-O1/O139 strains and Vibrio parahaemolytitcus strains capable of producing thermostable direct hemolysin (TDH) and/or TDH-related hemolysin.

  • Gammaproteobacteria

    • (enteritis and typhoid fever), Yersinia pestis (plague), Vibrio cholerae (cholera), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (lung infections in hospitalized or cystic fibrosis patients), and Escherichia coli (food poisoning).
    • Vibrio choleraeis the bacteria responsible for the gastroinestinal disease cholera.
    • In order to get the disease cholera, the bacteria must be able to colonize in the small intestine and a critical factor necessary for this colonization is the toxin-co-regulated pilus(TCP). 0395 is a wild type strain, showing the normal bundling of toxin-co-regulated pilus(TCP).

  • Exceptions to Koch's Postulates

    • Koch abandoned the requirement of the first postulate altogether when he discovered asymptomatic carriers of cholera and, later, of typhoid fever.
    • The third postulate specifies "should", not "must", because as Koch himself proved in regard to both tuberculosis and cholera, that not all organisms exposed to an infectious agent will acquire the infection.
    • Scanning electron microscope image of Vibrio cholerae bacteria, which infect the digestive system.

  • Descriptive Epidemiology

    • This map shows cases of cholera clustered around the location of water pumps.

  • World Health Trends

    • Cholera, on the other hand, is a disease of poverty, because it usually develops from poorly protected drinking water sources and is treatable but highly communicable.
    • Cholera is a disease of poverty, because it usually develops from poorly protected drinking water sources and is treatable but highly communicable.
    • Similarly, while one country may effectively treat cholera and thereby prevent deaths, individuals who cross national borders may spread the disease to countries that do not have the infrastructure to treat it.
    • The organization began with a focus on prevention and eradication of contagious diseases, such as cholera, smallpox, and malaria.

  • GIS

    • John Snow's cholera map from 1840s London (see figure below).
    • A cholera outbreak had killed several hundred residents in London's Soho section, and Snow, a physician, located the address of each fatality on a hand-drawn base map.
    • He and his students took the handle off the water pump so no one could use it, and the number of new cholera cases dropped sharply.
    • In short, using GIS, Snow was able to demonstrate the spatial relationship between cholera fatalities and the Broad Street water well, which led him to establish the relationship between cholera and drinking water.
    • He was able to substantially reduce the spread of cholera based on this learning.

  • Experimental Epidemiology

    • Original map by John Snow showing the clusters of cholera cases in the London epidemic of 1854.
    • He discovered that families that drew their water from the Broad St well became infected with cholera.

  • Industrialization and the Environment

    • Unsanitary conditions and overcrowding afflicted many American cities, where outbreaks of disease, including cholera and typhoid, were common.
    • The cholera outbreak of 1832 was related to overcrowding and unsanitary conditions that attended the Industrial Revolution.

  • History of Epidemiology

    • John Snow is famous for his investigations into the causes of the 19th century cholera epidemics, and is also known as the father of (modern) epidemiology.
    • John Snow (1813-1858), a British physician who is one of the founders of medical epidemiology, showing cases of cholera in the London epidemics of 1854, clustered around the locations of water pumps.