Question

A person is suffering from muscle cramps, vomiting, acute diarrhoea, dehydration, and passage of rice water like stool. Which of these diseases has the maximum possibility to occur?
A. Diphtheria
B. Tuberculosis
C. Cholera
D. Typhoid

Answer 1

Hint: Symptoms indicate a bacterial disease. This disease spreads through eating contaminated food and water contaminated with the bacterium. Major symptoms include diarrhoea and dehydration.

Complete answer: Cholera has the maximum possibility to occur as far as the symptoms are considered. It is a disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, which is a gram-negative bacteria. It secretes cholera toxin that causes white and rice water like stool. The bacteria attaches itself to the intestinal epithelium with help of cholera toxins. Symptoms for cholera include dehydration, fatigue, sunken eyes, a dry mouth, extreme thirst. When the skin is pinched, it does not bounce back quickly, low blood pressure, white stool, rice water like stool, etc.
a) Symptoms for Diphtheria: Nasal discharge, fever, swollen lymph nodes of the neck, throat and tonsils are covered with a grey coat. The causative agent for Diphtheria is Corynebacterium diphtheria.
b) Symptoms for Tuberculosis: Heavy cough lasting from three weeks or longer, chest pain, coughing of blood. Tuberculosis is a bacterial disease that causes severe infection to the lungs. It spreads when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the causative agent for the T.B. BCG vaccine Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine is used for the treatment.
c) Symptoms for Typhoid: stomach pain, loss of appetite, weakness, headache, cough, diarrhoea. The causative agent for Typhoid is Salmonella typhi bacteria.
Hence, the correct answer is option C.

Note: Cholera was prevalent in the U.S. in the 1800s, before modern water and sewage treatment systems eliminated its spread by contaminated water.