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Complications
By Mayo Clinic staffCholera can quickly become fatal. In the most severe cases, the rapid loss of large amounts of fluids and electrolytes can lead to death within two to three hours. In less extreme situations, people who don't receive treatment may die of dehydration and shock 18 hours to several days after cholera symptoms first appear.
Although shock and severe dehydration are the most devastating complications of cholera, other problems can occur, such as:
- Low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). A common cholera complication in children, hypoglycemia occurs when blood levels of glucose, the body's main energy source, fall abnormally low. Glucose is absorbed directly into your bloodstream after eating and enters your cells through the action of the hormone insulin. With severe cholera, people can become too ill to eat, so they don't get glucose from food. This may lead to unusually low blood sugar levels, which can cause seizures, unconsciousness and even death.
- Low potassium levels (hypokalemia). People with cholera lose large quantities of minerals, including potassium, in their stools. Very low potassium levels interfere with heart and nerve function and are life-threatening. Hypokalemia is especially serious in people whose potassium stores have already been depleted by malnutrition.
- Kidney (renal) failure. When the kidneys lose their filtering ability, excess amounts of fluids, some electrolytes and wastes build up in your body — a potentially life-threatening condition. In people with cholera, kidney failure often accompanies shock.
- Cholera. World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs107/en/. Accessed Feb. 19, 2009.
- Cholera. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/dfbmd/disease_listing/cholera_gi.html. Accessed Feb. 19, 2009.
- Cholera. The Merck Manuals: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec14/ch173/ch173e.html. Accessed Feb. 19, 2009.
- Butterton JR. Approach to the patient with Vibrio cholerae infection. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Feb. 19, 2009.
- Menon MP, et al. Vibrio cholerae (Cholera). In: Long SS, et al., eds. Long: Principles and Practice of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. 3rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier; 2008:844.
- Seas C, et al. Vibrio cholerae. In: Mandell GL, et al. Mandell, Bennett, & Dolin: Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases. 6th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier; 2005:2536.
