Diagnosis

The diagnosis of this condition is largely clinical.

Cholera should be suspected when:

• a patient aged 5 years or older develops severe dehydration or dies from acute watery diarrhoea, even in an area where cholera is not known to be present, or
• when a patient aged 2 years or more develops acute watery diarrhoea in an area known to have cholera (1).

Culture of stool and rectal swabs can be performed. A diagnostic test is the demonstration of rapidly motile vibrios by dark-field illumination and their subsequent inhibition by type-specific antisera.

Reference

1. Harris JB et al. Cholera. Lancet. 2012;379(9835):2466-76