Illness and Symptoms. Minus Related Pages. A physician checking a patient for dehydration. Person washing hands over a bucket of water. To receive email updates about this topic, enter your email address: Email Address. What's this? Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website. Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link. Still, certain factors can make you more vulnerable to the disease or more likely to have severe signs and symptoms. Cholera can quickly become fatal. In the most severe cases, the rapid loss of large amounts of fluids and electrolytes can lead to death within hours.
In less extreme situations, people who don't receive treatment can die of dehydration and shock hours to days after cholera symptoms first appear. Although shock and severe dehydration are the worst complications of cholera, other problems can occur, such as:. Cholera is rare in the United States with the few cases related to travel outside the U.
If you're traveling to areas known to have cholera, your risk of contracting the disease is extremely low if you follow these precautions:. Drink only safe water, including bottled water or water you've boiled or disinfected yourself. Use bottled water even to brush your teeth. Hot beverages are generally safe, as are canned or bottled drinks, but wipe the outside before you open them. Don't add ice to your drinks unless you made it yourself using safe water.
For adults traveling from the United States to areas affected by cholera, a vaccine called Vaxchora is available in the United States.
It is a liquid dose taken by mouth at least 10 days before travel. A few other countries offer oral vaccines as well. Contact your doctor or local office of public health for more information about these vaccines. Even with the vaccine, it's important to take the above precautions to prevent cholera. Mayo Clinic does not endorse companies or products. Advertising revenue supports our not-for-profit mission. This content does not have an English version.
This content does not have an Arabic version. Overview Cholera is a bacterial disease usually spread through contaminated water. A person with cholera can quickly lose fluids, up to 20 liters a day, so severe dehydration and shock can occur.
Shock can lead to collapse of the circulatory system. It is a life-threatening condition and a medical emergency.
Cholera bacteria enter the body through the mouth, often in food or water that has been contaminated with human waste, due to poor sanitation and hygiene.
They can also enter by eating seafood that is raw or not completely cooked, in particular shellfish native to estuary environments, such as oysters or crabs. Poorly cleaned vegetables irrigated by contaminated water sources are another common source of infection. In situations where sanitation is severely challenged, such as in refugee camps or communities with highly limited water resources, a single affected victim can contaminate all the water for an entire population.
A doctor may suspect cholera if a patient has severe watery diarrhea, vomiting, and rapid dehydration, especially if they have recently traveled to a place that has a recent history of cholera, or poor sanitation, or if they have recently consumed shellfish.
A stool sample will be sent to a laboratory for testing, but if cholera is suspected, the patient must begin treatment even before the results come back. It is normally dehydration that leads to death from cholera, so the most important treatment is to give oral hydration solution ORS , also known as oral rehydration therapy ORT.
Prepackaged mixtures are commercially available, but widespread distribution in developing countries is limited by cost, so homemade ORS recipes are often used, with common household ingredients.
Severe cases of cholera require intravenous fluid replacement. An adult weighing 70 kilograms will need at least 7 liters of intravenous fluids. Antibiotics can shorten the duration of the illness, but the WHO does not recommend the mass use of antibiotics for cholera, because of the growing risk of bacterial resistance. Anti-diarrheal medicines are not used because they prevent the bacteria from being flushed out of the body.
With proper care and treatment, the fatality rate should be around 1 percent. Cholera is often spread through food and because of poor hygiene. Some simple measures can reduce the risk of contracting cholera. Travelers should learn about cholera before visiting a country where it is prevalent. Individuals should seek medical attention immediately if they experience symptoms such as leg cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea while in a community where the disease exists. These are Dukoral, Shanchol, and Euvichol.
Dukoral needs to be taken with clean water, and it provides roughly 65 percent protection for 2 years. Shanchol and Euvichol do not need to be taken with water, and they provide 65 percent protection for 5 years.
All the vaccines offer higher protection nearer to the time they are given.
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