Cholera and the skin (For profesionals)

• Cholera is an infectious disease due to ingestion of food or water drinking contaminated by the Vibrio Cholerae bacteria. Up to 150000 people are infected each year, 90% of which are in Africa.
• It leads to a profuse painless watery diarrhea which can lead to severe dehydration and death.
• Treatment is technically simple and consists of giving back the lost water and electrolytes, by mouth or intravenously.

• It is not normally associated with skin lesions but there is a case report in the literature of systemic dissemination with meningitis and on the skin:

1. Generalized edema
2. ecchymotic patches with a vesiculobullous eruption on the distal limbs.

Bibliography

Cutaneous manifestations of non-01 Vibrio cholerae septicemia with gastroenteritis and meningitis. Chan HL, Ho HC, Kuo TT. J Am Acad Dermatol. 1994 Apr;30(4):626-8. Review.