We have just started studying diarrhoea and cholera, and from what we learnt from watching the following video, we had to answer some questions.

1) Name signs/symptoms caused by cholera.

Diarrhea, vomiting, weakness, dehydration (signs)

Feeling sick (symptom)

2) State ways in which the bacterium spreads in the village.

Through water that hasn’t been purified, through not washed food, through dirty hands, through flies and agents that transport the bacteria (Vibrio cholerae)

3) What is diarrhoea?

Diarrhoea is the loss of water and minerals in faeces.

4) How does the cholera bacterium cause diarrhoea?

It produces a toxin that attaches to the wall of the small intestine and affects the villi and makes it secrete chloride. Which causes water from the blood to move into the lumen through osmosis.

5) How did the boy treat his father?

He filtrated the water and boiled it for a minute at a 100°C and then gave him the purified water with half a teaspoon of salt and 6 teaspoons of sugar to obtain again the minerals.

6) Name the different actions which the boy taught to the people in the village to prevent the disease.

To wash their hands before eating and cooking and after going to the toilet, to filtrate the water, to add chlorine to the water, to wash food before eating it, to boil the food while cooking, to keep food away from flies, build bathrooms away of rivers.