China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Global Water Resources
Published in Louis Theodore, R. Ryan Dupont, Water Resource Management Issues, 2019
Louis Theodore, R. Ryan Dupont
Cholera, resulting in severe diarrhea, vomiting, and dehydration, is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. People become infected after eating food or drinking water that has been contaminated by the feces of infected persons. Raw or undercooked seafood may be a source of infection in areas where cholera is prevalent and sanitation is poor. Vegetables and fruit that have been washed with water contaminated by sewage may also transmit the infection if V. cholerae is present. A cholera outbreak in 1991 in Peru spread throughout Central and South America resulting in more than 1 million cases of the disease and more than 9,600 deaths (Pepper et al. 2014). The risk of cholera remains high throughout the world as changing climate conditions resulting in increased temperatures and algal growth increase the survivability of V. cholerae in the environment, increasing risk of human exposure and disease transmission.
Biological Terrorist Agents
Published in Robert A. Burke, Counter-Terrorism for Emergency Responders, 2017
Cholera (Vibrio cholerae) is an incapacitating infection caused by the bacterium V. cholerae that is contracted by ingestion of contaminated water or food or through inhalation. This bacteria has been considered in the past as a biological weapon. However, it does not spread easily from person to person and is not considered to be contagious. To be a serious biological terrorism threat, drinking water supplies would have to be contaminated with large amounts of the bacteria. Cholera occurs naturally in many underdeveloped countries and has caused widespread outbreaks in South America, with over 250,000 cases reported just in Peru. It can be spread through ingestion of food or water contaminated with feces or vomitus of patients, by dirty water, hands contaminated with feces, or flies. Cholera is an acute infectious disease, represented by a very sudden onset of symptoms. Victims may experience: NauseaVomitingProfuse watery diarrhea with “rice water” appearanceRapid loss of body fluidsToxemiaFrequent collapse
Environment-Related Infectious Diseases
Published in Barry L. Johnson, Maureen Y. Lichtveld, Environmental Policy and Public Health, 2017
Barry L. Johnson, Maureen Y. Lichtveld
Cholera is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. During the 1800s, cholera outbreaks occurred frequently in the U.S. Cholera is transmitted by ingestion of water or food that has been contaminated with human feces. Upon infection, the cholera bacterium releases a toxin (classified as O1 or O139) that can cause severe diarrhea and dehydration [5,6]. If left untreated, it can be fatal. Currently, cholera is mostly travel-associated [7,8]. The CDCs’ Cholera and Other Vibrio Illness Surveillance System was created in 1988 in partnership with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Gulf Coast States to obtain information on any Vibrionaceae-associated illness and provide information about risk groups and exposure risk [9]. Other systems that conduct surveillance on Vibrio-associated illness include the NNDSS, the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System, and the National Outbreak Reporting System. All cholera cases also have to be reported to WHO in compliance with international health regulations.
A partially degenerate reaction–diffusion cholera model with temporal and spatial heterogeneity
Published in Applicable Analysis, 2023
Cholera is an acute diarrheal disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. It can be transmitted directly to humans by person-to-person contact or indirectly to humans from the environment (by ingesting water or food contaminated with Vibrio cholerae) [1,2]. Although tremendous efforts have been made to limit its spread, cholera is still a concern in countries where clean water and sanitation resources are limited to access. The last decade has witnessed many large-scale cholera outbreaks in developing countries, including Haiti (2010–2012), South Sudan (2014), and Yemen (2016–2017). It is estimated that every year, there are 1.3 to 4.0 million cases of cholera, and 21,000–143,000 deaths globally due to the infection [3].
Identification of epidemiological models: the case study of Yemen cholera outbreak
Published in Applicable Analysis, 2022
Maria Francesca Carfora, Isabella Torcicollo
Infectious diseases continue to debilitate and cause death worldwide. An important property of infectious diseases, including diseases caused by waterborne pathogens, is that these complex interactions always result from an infectious individual or environmental source transmitting the pathogen to a susceptible individual. Waterborne disease studies have a celebrated place in epidemiology and public health, with John Snow's researches, who is considered one of the fathers of modern epidemiology, in part because of his work in tracing the source of a cholera outbreak in Soho, London, in 1854. His studies inspired fundamental changes in the water and waste systems of London, which led to similar changes in other cities, and a significant improvement in general public health around the world. A small sampling of diseases in common waterborne infections includes Cholera, Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Campylobacter, Typhoid and Paratyphoid fevers, hepatitis A and E, norovirus, rotavirus and many others [1,2]; these can be caused by a variety of pathogenic microbes (bacteria, protozoa, etc.) in contaminated water. Unfortunately, waterborne diseases, mostly cholera, remain a serious public health concern today, resulting in more than 3.5 million deaths a year according to WHO estimates. Despite many clinical and theoretical studies and many efforts or interventions, cholera remains a significant threat to public health in developing countries. Cholera is an acute intestinal infection caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. Its dynamics are complicated by the multiple interactions between the human host, the pathogen and the environment, which contribute to both direct human-to-human and indirect environment-to-human transmission pathways. A deep understanding of the disease dynamics would provide important guidelines to the effective prevention and control strategies. Several different factors must be considered in attempting to understand disease dynamics, including different transmission pathways [3,4]. It is known that the qualitative model behavior is strongly influenced by the way in which the force of infection due to both indirect and direct transmission is incorporated. The propagation of diseases occurs typically through pathogen ingestion, but it is possible to acquire an infection through direct person-to-person contact. For example, cholera transmission typically occurs by the ingestion of contaminated water or food, but an outbreak in a Singapore psychiatric hospital indicated that the direct human-to-human transmission was a driving force [5]. Another example is an outbreak noted in Butabika National Mental Referral Hospital (Uganda) in October 2008 [6]. It is also discovered that the cholera outbreak in Papua, Indonesia, in 2008 was primarily caused by misconduct during funeral of a cholera victim, i.e. family members are hugging and kissing the dead body [7].