Symptoms+&+Disease+Progression-Cholera

Overview of progression:
 * symptoms; diarrhea and vomiting
 * loss of fluids
 * **dehydration**
 * electrolyte imbalance
 * shock

Cholera is not always noticeable in infected patients. Rather, many people will never know they are infected but still carry the disease in their stool for 7-14 days. 1-10 patients however do have noticeable symptoms. The primary symptom of Cholera is uncontrolled diarrhea. The diarrhea is a rice-water hue, and can cause a fluid loss up to a quart per hour. Naseau and vomitting are also common symptoms of the disease. Children have these same symptoms but also may experience fever, drowsiness, comatose, or conclusions.

Due to the rapid loss of fluids through both uncontrolled diarrhea and vomitting, many Choleara patients will then show symptoms of dehydration. This can develop within hours after the star of symptoms, but varies depending on how much fluid is lost. Cholera dehydration symptoms include "irritability, lethargy, sunken eyes, a dry mouth, extreme thirst, dry and shriveled skin that's slow to bounce back when pinched into a fold, little or no urine output, low blood pressure, and an irregular heartbeat."

This dehydration can then lead to an electrolyte imbalance, due to the loss of important minerals from bodily fluids. This can lead to muscle cramps resulting from a lack of salt, or severe shock which can lead to death.

The rapid loss of fluids and dehydration can result to death within hours of infection. However, the timeline varies on the severity of infection, and level of dehydration. This is looked at more in depth on the treatment page.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cholera/ds00579/dsection=symptoms
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