Twenty years of cholera research

In June 1947, I arrived in Cairo, Egypt, to take command of the US Navy Medical Research Unit No. Three (NAMRU-3), and in September cholera invaded Egypt. This was the first outbreak of cholera in over 20 years and the country was illprepared to cope with the problem. Cholera is an infectious disease caused by growth ofVibrio choleraein the intestine of man. It is characterized by its epidemicity and a profound diarrhea with excretion of protein-free isotonic fluid. Stool volume often exceeds the patient's body weight in this self-limited disease which has a duration of 4 to 7 days. The mortality rate in untreated patients is more than 60%. It was decided to investigate the disease and we selected for our studies patients admitted to the Abbasia Fever Hospital who were in severe shock. More than 40 patients were studied and only three died.1At that time