It is feared that a pensioner has passed away after contracting cholera – in what would be the first case of its kind in Britain for 125 years.
The unnamed father of two, who was in his 80s, died on Tuesday at the George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton with his family beside him.
He had fallen ill around a week ago at home and was admitted to the Warwickshire-based hospital when his condition quickly deteriorated.
There were reportedly initial fears that he had caught the waterborne disease cholera, which killed thousands in the United Kingdom during the Victorian era and continues to cause deaths in Africa.
If so, it would have been the first time a British person had died of cholera since 1901.
The UK Health Security Agency later confirmed that the pensioner contracted a non-toxigenic strain that does not cause cholera.
A source close to the deceased’s family told The Sun: ‘They have no idea how he caught it. They were asked by doctors if he’d been abroad recently, but he hadn’t. He lived at home with his youngest son.
‘It was incredibly dramatic. Doctors called them on Sunday and said he could have just hours to live. He clung on until Wednesday but withered away before their eyes.’
A spokesperson for the The UK Health Security Agency told the Daily Mail: ‘An individual was tested and results indicate that they tested positive for a type of bacteria called Non-toxigenic Vibrio cholerae, which does not cause cholera disease. UKHSA has not confirmed a cholera case.’
Cholera is an intestinal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae.
It has a short incubation period, of less than one day to five days, and produces an enterotoxin that causes a copious, painless, watery diarrhoea.
This can quickly lead to severe dehydration and death if treatment is not promptly given. Vomiting also occurs in most patients.
Cholera is rarely found in the UK anymore, despite causing terrifying outbreaks in the 1800s.
It was flushed out by access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation facilities.
Cholera does not spread directly from person to person via casual contact, such as coughing or sneezing, like many contagious diseases.
But when people drink contaminated water, use it to prepare food or use it to wash their hands, the infection spreads.
Washing hands with soap and water can cut the risk, as can only drinking tap water that’s been boiled.
