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Cholera Facts & Worksheets

Cholera is an acute diarrheal illness that might develop when Vibrio cholerae germs are found in food or water.

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Cholera is an acute diarrheal illness that might develop when Vibrio cholerae germs are found in food or water. Cholera, which also symbolizes inequality and a lack of social progress, continues to endanger public health.

See the fact file below for more information on Cholera, or you can download our 29-page Cholera worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

HISTORY

  • Early writings about cholera-like disorders can be found in manuscripts from India (Sushruta Samhita, 5th century BCE.), Greece (Hippocrates, 4th century BCE.), and Cappadocia. Gaspar Correa, a Portuguese historian and the author of Legendary India, provided one of the first in-depth accounts of a cholera pandemic.
  • He documented a sickness outbreak in the Ganges Delta, a region in south Asia that includes Bangladesh and India, in the spring of 1543. The sickness, known as ” moryxy” by the locals, reportedly killed victims within eight hours of the onset of symptoms and had a high fatality rate that made it difficult for the community to bury all the dead.
  • Throughout the following several centuries, Portuguese, Dutch, French, and British observers often reported seeing cholera symptoms along India’s west coast.

THE FIRST CHOLERA PANDEMIC

  • In 1817, a cholera outbreak caused by tainted rice in Jessore, India, marked the start of the first cholera pandemic to emerge from the Ganges Delta. By traveling along trade routes set up by Europeans, the disease swiftly spread throughout the majority of India, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. By 1820, cholera had spread to the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia (where it killed 100,000 people just on the island of Java), and Indonesia.
  • The illness spread through sick travelers aboard ships from Thailand and Indonesia to China in 1820 and Japan in 1822.
  • It also grew outside of Asia. British forces crossed the Persian Gulf from India to Oman in 1821 and took cholera with them.
  • Eventually, the epidemic spread to Europe, reaching what is now Turkey, Syria, and Southern Russia.
  • A harsh winter in 1823–1824 may have eliminated the germs in water supplies, which may have caused the pandemic to end six years after it started.

Cholera Infects Europe and the Americas

  • Around 1829, the second cholera pandemic started. The second pandemic is believed to have originated in India, traveled by commercial and military networks to Eastern and Central Asia, and then reached the Middle East.
  • Moscow had been infected by cholera by the fall of 1830. During the winter, the disease’s progress was briefly hindered, but it quickly resumed in the spring of 1831, reaching Finland and Poland. 
  • After that, it entered Germany and Hungary. Following its initial appearance in Great Britain in the ports of Sunderland in late 1831 and London in early 1832, the disease expanded throughout Europe. 
  • Britain took several measures to assist in stopping the disease’s spread, such as instituting quarantines and setting up regional health boards. But widespread sickness, dread, and mistrust of authorities, especially doctors, gripped the populace.
  • The public came to believe that victims brought to hospitals were slain by doctors for anatomical dissection, a process they called “burking,” and that more victims died in hospitals than in their homes due to this notion.
  • This fear resulted in several “cholera riots” in Liverpool. Cholera reached the Americas in 1832 as well. In June of that year, a thousand people died from the illness in Quebec, and it soon spread throughout the St. Lawrence River and its tributaries. Cholera was smuggled into the country about the same time and first appeared in New York and Philadelphia. 
  • It would spread throughout the nation during the following few years. In 1833, it made its way to Latin America, including Mexico and Cuba. 

HOW SCIENTISTS STUDIED CHOLERA

  • The world saw four additional cholera pandemics between 1852 and 1923. The deadliest epidemic, which lasted from 1852 to 1859, was the third. In 1854, the worst year for cholera, it ravaged Asia, Europe, North America, and Africa, killing 23,000 people in only Great Britain.
  • That year, the cholera outbreak in London’s Soho neighborhood was meticulously documented by British physician John Snow, regarded as one of the founders of modern epidemiology.
  • This allowed him to pinpoint the disease’s origin: contaminated water from a public well pump. 
  • The rate of cholera cases in the area instantly decreased when he persuaded authorities to remove the pump handle. 
  • Overall less severe than earlier pandemics, the fourth and fifth cholera pandemics—which occurred between 1863 and 1875 and 1881 and 1896, respectively—had their fair share of lethal outbreaks.
  • For instance, cholera caused 190,000 deaths in Hungary between 1872 and 1873. And the cholera outbreak in Hamburg in 1892 resulted in a population loss of about 1.5%.
  • German microbiologist Robert Koch, the father of contemporary bacteriology, investigated cholera in Calcutta and Egypt in 1883.
  • He created a method that allowed him to grow and Characterize V. cholerae before demonstrating that the bacterium’s presence in the intestines causes cholera.
  • Although it wasn’t widely recognized, Italian researcher Filippo Pacini discovered the cholera bacteria in 1854 and named it chlorogenic vibrios (which was likely unbeknownst to Koch).
  • Thanks to improved water supply and quarantine procedures, Great Britain and the United States remained largely safe during the fifth pandemic. 
  • Western Europe and North America were primarily spared by the sixth cholera epidemic (1899–1923) thanks to public health and sanitation advancements.
  • The plague severely affected Russia, the Middle East, Northern Africa, and India. 
  • Most of the world had seen a decline in cholera occurrences by 1923, except India, where it killed more than 500,000 people in both 1918 and 1919.

Vibrio cholerae strains

  • There are numerous V. cholerae serogroups, but only two of them—O1 and O139—cause outbreaks. V. cholerae O1 has caused all recent epidemics. First discovered in Bangladesh in 1992, V. cholerae O139 formerly caused outbreaks but has subsequently only been found in isolated instances.

EPIDEMIOLOGY, RISKS FACTORS, AND DISEASE BURDEN

  • A cholera epidemic or endemic can occur. A place is considered to be cholera-endemic if it has had confirmed cases of the disease within the previous three years and there is proof of local transmission (meaning the issues are not imported from elsewhere).
  • Both endemic and non-endemic cholera countries can experience an outbreak or epidemic of the disease. An epidemic, defined as a higher-than-expected number of cases, can be sporadic or seasonal in cholera-endemic nations.
  • An outbreak in a country where cholera does not typically occur is the presence of at least one confirmed case and proof of local transmission in a location where cholera does not usually happen.

ENDEMIC. The average prevalence of a given disease in a community. Another name for it is a baseline.

EPIDEMIC. A rise in disease cases over what would typically be anticipated given the local population.

PANDEMIC. A pandemic has spread across nations or continents and has a significant human impact.

  • Transmission of cholera is strongly correlated with a lack of access to sanitary facilities and clean water. 
  • Examples of at-risk areas where the minimal criteria for clean water and sanitation are not maintained include peri-urban slums and camps for internally displaced people or refugees.
  • Should the bacterium be present or introduced, the effects of a humanitarian crisis, such as the destruction of water and sanitation systems or the migration of populations into short and crowded camps, might raise the likelihood of cholera transmission. 
  • Epidemics have never been attributed to uncontaminated dead remains.

ILLNESS AND SYMPTOMS

  • In the early stages of cholera, the following symptoms are common and affect about 1 in 10 people:
    • Excessive watery stools, often known as “rice-water stools,”
    • Vomiting
    • Thirst
    • Leg twitches
    • Jitteriness or annoyance
  • Severe dehydration, which can result in renal failure, can develop in cholera patients. Severe dehydration can cause shock, a coma, and death within hours if left untreated. 
  • The pathogenic Vibrio cholerae bacterium, which can infect others if eaten, is in high concentrations in profuse diarrhea that cholera sufferers generate. When the bacteria contact food or water, this may occur. 
  • The feces (human waste) from sick people should be disposed of properly to avoid contaminating everything close to stop the infection from spreading.

CAUSES

  • Due to poor sanitation and hygiene, cholera germs frequently enter the body through the mouth and contaminate food or drink exposed to human waste. 
  • They can also enter by consuming undercooked or uncooked seafood, especially shellfish native to estuarine habitats, including oysters and crabs. Uncleanly handled produce rinsed with tainted water is another frequent source of infection.

TREATMENT

  • Since cholera can result in death within hours, it must be treated immediately. 
    • Rehydration – Use of oral rehydration salts, a straightforward rehydration solution, is intended to replenish lost fluids and electrolytes (ORS). The ORS solution can be created using boiled or bottled water and is available as a powder. About 50% of cholera patients die if they are not rehydrated. Fatalities decrease to fewer than 1% after treatment.
    • Intravenous liquids – Most cholera patients can be healed by oral rehydration alone, but those who are highly dehydrated may also require intravenous fluids.
    • Antibiotics. Some medicines can lessen cholera-related diarrhea and minimize how long it lasts in critically unwell persons, while they are not essential for cholera treatment.
  • According to research, supplements with zinc may lessen diarrhea in cholera-infected youngsters and minimize its duration.

PREVENTION

  • You should frequently wash your hands and take measures to ensure the safety of your food and drink to prevent cholera. When these straightforward precautions are taken, there is extremely little danger of contracting cholera while visiting locations where it is epidemic:
    • Be sure to take plenty of water, use it to make ice, wash your hands, and brush your teeth.
    • Cans or bottles of carbonated beverages and bottled water with intact seals are safe to use and consume.
    • Use water that has been thoroughly boiled, chlorinated, or filtered if bottled water is not an option:
    • The most efficient method for making water safe is to boil it. Bring your water to a full boil for at least one minute if it is cooking.
    • If boiling is not an alternative, you can disinfect your water using chlorine granules or tablets.
    • Wash your hands frequently with soap and warm water:
      • When cooking food for yourself or your family, before, during, and after the use of the restroom or lavatory
      • Care for a cholera patient before and after

NOTABLE CASES

  • The popular explanation for Tchaikovsky’s passing is cholera, which he most likely acquired from drinking polluted water a few days earlier. Cholera claimed the life of Tchaikovsky’s mother, and at the same time, his father fell ill with it but recovered completely. 
  • However, several academics have hypothesized that his demise was a suicide, including English musicologist and Tchaikovsky expert David Brown and biographer Anthony Holden.
  • Haiti’s cholera epidemic in 2010 is the biggest cholera outbreak in recent memory, and the one with the most significant documentation in modern public health occurred in Haiti ten months after the 2010 earthquake. This outbreak was linked to a U.N. base housing peacekeepers from Nepal.

Cholera Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about Cholera across 29 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets that are perfect for teaching kids about Cholera, which is an acute diarrheal illness that might develop when Vibrio cholerae germs are found in food or water.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

  1. Cholera Facts
  2. Vocabulary Picture
  3. True or False
  4. Is It Cholera?
  5. Action Plan
  6. My Emotions
  7. Short Essay
  8. Primary Source Analysis
  9. News Analysis
  10. How Do We Differ?
  11. Myth about Cholera

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is cholera known as the blue death?

They called it the devastating blue death because patients’ veins would thicken without blood, and their skin would turn blue from lack of oxygen. Dehydration would also make them very sick.

How long did cholera last?

The pandemic eventually ended after six years between 1817-1823/1824. Scientists think the freezing season killed the bacteria living in water sources because of the harsh cold season.

Is there a vaccine for cholera?

Vaxchora is a single-dose, oral vaccine FDA-approved in the United States for use in people aged 2–64 who are traveling to an area of active cholera transmission.

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Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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