What is cholera and how does it spread?

Answer 1

Cholera is a dreadful disease caused by unsanitary conditions found along rivers which pioneers stopped to camp at. It is caused by contaminated water. They do human waste on the rivers and they drank the water. They threw animal carcasses on the river which they drank. They threw food on the rivers which caused the water in river to turn into an contaminated water which they drank caused cholera. Sadly, the emigrants did not realize that they will get cholera from the contaminated water.

Answer 2

Cholera is a serious infectious disease caused by the bacteria Vibrio cholerae, which affects the intestinal system of the body.

Ok so firstly a Cholera bacterium enters the body , most of the vibrio cholerae are killed off by acidic conditions in the stomach. However some will survive and use their flagellum to move to the small intestine.

The cholera bacterium will penetrate the mucus lining of the small intestine wall and attach itself to specific receptors on the small intestine, this is why Cholera only occurs in the small intestine because its protein covering is complimentary to receptors on the small intestine wall.

Another part of the bacterium will release toxins, which will cause ion channels to open on the surface of the epithelium.This cause CL- ions to flood out of the epithelium and into the lumen of the small intestine.This in turn lowers the water potential of the lumen and hence causes water in the epithelium to moves from an area of higher water potential ( epithelium) to an area of lower water potential (lumen).This movement of water is called Osmosis.

This water in the lumen causes the watery diarrhoea associated with Cholera.

Answer 3

Cholera is an acute illness characterized by watery diarrhea. The toxin released by the bacteria causes increased secretion of water and chloride ions in the intestine, which can produce massive diarrhea. The disease can spread rapidly in areas with inadequate treatment of sewage and drinking water.

Wikipedia

Info:

Most of the V. cholerae bacteria in the water that a potential host drinks do not survive the very acidic conditions of the human stomach. But the few bacteria that manage to survive the stomach's acidity conserve their energy and stored nutrients during the perilous passage through the stomach by shutting down much protein production. When the surviving bacteria manage to exit the stomach and reach the favorable conditions of the small intestine, they need to propel themselves through the thick mucus that lines the small intestine to get to the intestinal wall where they can thrive. So they start up production of the hollow cylindrical protein flagellin to make flagella, the curly whip-like tails that they rotate to propel themselves through the pasty mucus that lines the small intestine.

Once the cholera bacteria reach the intestinal wall, they do not need the flagella propellers to move themselves any more, so they stop producing the protein flagellin, thus again conserving energy and nutrients by changing the mix of proteins that they manufacture, responding to the changed chemical surroundings. And on reaching the intestinal wall, they start producing the toxic proteins that give the infected person a watery diarrhea which carries the multiplying and thriving new generations of V. cholerae bacteria out into the drinking water of the next host---if proper sanitation measures are not in place.

Answer 4

Its toxin causes an osmosis between the intestine and the lumen, which makes water from the body leak into the intestine. This then causes fatal dehydration

Answer 5

like all bacteria do