Cholera kills by drying the body out, sometimes within hours. The thing that saves people is fluid, and the fluid has to start at home, before and during the journey. A person who reaches a treatment centre still drinking almost always survives.
What it looks like
- Sudden watery diarrhoea, in large amounts, often pale and cloudy like rice water.
- Vomiting, usually without much stomach pain and usually without fever.
- Rapid weakness, cramps in the legs, and a sunken look to the eyes.
Start ORS immediately, then go
Oral rehydration salts, mixed exactly as the sachet says, in treated water. Give a cup after every loose stool for an adult, and small sips constantly for a child. Keep giving it in the taxi. If there is no sachet, half a small spoon of salt and six level small spoons of sugar in one litre of safe water will do until you reach a sachet, but use the sachet when you can get one.
Go to a treatment centre now if
- The eyes look sunken, or a baby has no tears when crying.
- The skin stays pinched when you lift it.
- Very little urine, or none.
- Too weak to sit, or drowsy.
- Vomiting everything, so the fluid cannot go in.
Protect the rest of the house
- Wash hands with soap after any contact with the person or their clothes.
- Disinfect soiled clothing and bedding, and the latrine, with chlorine.
- Drink only boiled or treated water, everyone, for the duration.
- Tell the health centre. Cholera is notifiable, and one reported case is what brings the response that protects the quarter.
What not to do
- Do not stop fluids because the diarrhoea continues. The fluid is the treatment, not the cause.
- Do not give antidiarrhoeal tablets to a child.
- Do not wait to see whether it settles.