Cholera
Back to Topic
Click to Print
Useful Websites
Glossary Term Selection
This article is 9 years old.
Click here to view the latest articles for this topic.
Cholera often breaks out when there is overcrowding and inadequate access to clean water, rubbish collection and proper toilets. It causes profuse diarrhoea and vomiting which can lead to death by intense dehydration, sometimes within a matter of hours.
Cholera is a serious risk in the aftermath of emergencies, like the Haiti earthquake of 2010, but can strike anywhere. The situation can be especially problematic in rainy seasons when houses and latrines flood and contaminated water collects in stagnant pools.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cholera affects three to five million people worldwide and causes between 100,000 and 130,000 deaths per year.
Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF)’s water and sanitation engineers and logisticians play a vital role in the prevention of cholera. The disease is treatable and, in many situations, MSF teams have limited the death rate to less than one per cent.
What causes cholera?
Cholera is caused by an i...
Want to see the rest of this article?
Would you like to see the rest of this article and all the other benefits that Issues Online can provide with?
- Useful related articles
- Video and multimedia references
- Statistical information and reference material
- Glossary of terms
- Key Facts and figures
- Related assignments
- Resource material and websites
