According to Wikipedia Cholera is an infection of the small intestine caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Transmission is primarily through contaminated drinking water or food.
The severity of the diarrhea and vomiting can lead to rapid dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. Primary treatment is with oral or intravenous rehydration solutions. Antibiotics may be beneficial, and in certain cases they are used. Cholera is a major cause of death in the world. Cholera was one of the earliest infections to be studied by epidemiological methods.
130 and more were dead including children and babies in Haiti Cholera, a spreading cholera outbreak in rural Haiti threatened to outpace aid groups as they stepped up efforts Saturday hoping to keep the disease from reaching the squalid camps of earthquake survivors in Port-au-Prince. Health officials said at least 208 people had died and 2,674 others were infected in an outbreak mostly centered in the Artibonite region north of the capital.
The epidemic is believed to be have been caused by the contamination of the Artibonite river, which crosses the rural centre of the country and is used by thousands for washing and cooking.
The Doctors were testing for cholera, typhoid and other illnesses in the Caribbean nation's deadliest outbreak since a January earthquake that killed as many as 300,000 people. Catherine Huck, deputy country director for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the Caribbean nation's health ministry had recorded 135 deaths and more than 1,000 infected people.
