Cholera is an infectious diarrhoeal disease caused by ingesting food or water contaminated with the bacteria Vibrio cholerae. It affects 1.4 billion people globally, especially in endemic countries in South Asia, Africa, and Central America. Annually, it claims over 120,000 lives when rehydration treatment is not administered imminently. Bangladesh’s capital – Dhaka – is classified
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Record-high patients at icddr,b Dhaka hospital as summer hits
It takes several people to resuscitate a man who arrived at the hospital an hour ago, inches away from death. This summer, Cholera strikes back, with water supplying authority declaring that it cannot guarantee safe water. Up to 700 patients rushed in for admission in a hospital that can accommodate 250. This is about 200
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Poor sanitation and hygiene underlie the persistence of childhood wasting in Bangladesh
Few images communicate the systemic poverty of the developing world as starkly as photos of wasting children. Scientifically, wasting is defined as a weight-for-height score that is two standard deviations below the WHO growth standard – but this dry, technical definition can hardly communicate the horror of children that have been undernourished to such an
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Using hospital visits to promote sanitation and limit the spread of cholera: The CHoBI7 trial
Deadly diarrhoeal diseases like cholera usually spread through water contaminated with the faeces of affected individuals. Contaminated public drinking water acts as the medium of contagion, rapidly infecting thousands in crowded cities. These diseases can kill people through severe dehydration, and research has shown that repeated episodes of diarrhoea can cause chronic malnutrition and wasting.
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Overcoming structural barriers to clean drinking water: highlights of ongoing work at icddr,b
In the nineteenth century, cholera epidemics ravaged Victorian London. The medical orthodoxy of the time mistakenly believed that cholera was spread by “miasma” – foul-smelling vapours that seemed to collect around the houses and latrines of the poor. Cholera was often presented as a moral consequence of the poor sanitary habits of the lower classes.