A PowerPoint describing what Cholera is and the effects it has on people. Graphs showing cases and deaths around the world are shown as well as a case study of Cholera in Zimbabwe.

1. Study of an infectious disease

2. Cholera cases (2004-2007)

3. Cholera Cases - 2003

4. Cholera Deaths - 2003

5. What is Cholera?
 Infectious disease caused by a
bacterium that affects the absorption of
water in the small intestine.
 Danger aspect! – if vast loss of fluid
occurs in a short space of time.
 If untreated…loss of fluid can be fatal
within 24 hours of developing the
disease.

6. Cholera
 Cholera’s spread is related to standards
of hygiene and the quality of drinking
water.
 It was a single well in London in the
1850-60s that was the source of several
separate cholera epidemics.

7. Where does it occur?
Asia and Africa
 ‘El Tor’ cholera reaches Peru in early
1990s and then spreads to the rest of
Latin America and then Central America.
 Densely populated, poor areas with little
sanitation and unsatisfactory food
hygiene are particularly affected by
epidemics.

8. How is it transmitted?
 Bacteria are excreted in faeces and if
this comes into contact with drinking
water, the bacteria can infect people.
 Bacteria can also spread to food if
people don't wash their hands
thoroughly after using the toilet.
 The food prepared at the funeral of a
cholera victim is a common source of
secondary spread in Africa!
 The disease can be spread through fish
and shellfish from contaminated water.

9. Cholera in Zimbabwe
 In the past few years the number of
deaths from cholera in Zimbabwe has
increased rapidly.
 What do you know about the situation in
Zimbabwe?
 Does cholera in Zimbabwe matter on a
global scale?

11. Zimbabwe riot police broke up protests by doctors and nurses
demonstrating in Harare as the health service fights the country’s
worst cholera outbreak on record

12. Hospitals in Zimbabwe are battling a shortage of drugs and are
struggling to find basic equipment to operate laboratories and
surgical facilities, and many have closed completely

13. Some Zimbabweans have attempted to leave the country for
treatment, many heading to the better equipped facilities in
neighbouring South Africa.

14. The water delivery system has broken down in many Zimbabwean
cities because of a lack of chemicals to treat the supply, leaving
residents no option but to drink from contaminated wells &
streams .