What are the signs of cholera?

Answer 1

Symptoms include those of general GA tract (stomach) upset and massive watery diarrhea. Symptoms may also include terrible muscle and stomach cramps, vomiting and fever in early stages. In a later stage the diarrhea becomes "rice water stool" (almost clear with flecks of white). Symptoms are caused by massive body fluid loss induced by the enterotoxins that V. cholerae produces. The main enterotoxin, known as cholera toxin, interacts with G proteins and cyclic AMP in the intestinal lining to open ion channels. The toxin actually catalyzes the covalent modification of Gαs protein by transferring an ADP-ribose to an arginine residue at the GTPase active site. This ADP-ribosylation prevents Gαs from hydrolyzing GTP, thus causing the protein to become permanently activated. As ions flow into the intestinal lumen (lining), body fluids (mostly water) flow out of the body due to osmosis leading to massive diarrhea as the fluid is expelled from the body. The body is "tricked" into releasing massive amounts of fluid into the small intestine which shows up in up to 36 liters of liquid diarrhea in a six day period in adults with accompanying massive dehydration. Radical dehydration can bring death within a day through collapse of the circulatory system.

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---- Early symptons:

* Gidiness * sick stomach * slow and weak pulse * cramp at the top of the fingers and toes, Later symptons:

* vomiting or diarrhoea * the face becomes sharp and shrunken * the eyes sink and look wild * the lips, face, neck, hands and feet and the whole surface of the body turns a leaden, blue, purple and black * the skin is deadly cold and often damp, the tongue always moist, often white. -Twilight-

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